His  Holiness  Pope  Leo  XIII. 


THE 


2-1 

^lEMORIAL  VOLUME, 


A  HISTORY 


—  OF    THE  — 


Third  Plenary  Council 


OF    BALTIMORE, 


NOVEMBER   9-DECEMBEE,   7,    1884. 


*! 


BALTIMORE : 

THE  BALTIMORE  PUBLISHING  COMPANY, 

No.  174  West  Baltimore  Street. 
1885. 


UOPTRIOHT 

Bt  the  Bat.timore  PnBLisniNG  Co.. 

188.5. 


81503 


DISCARDED 


Press  of  {\e  Baltimort  PublUfiing  Co. 


MEMORIAL    VOLUME 


— OF    THE- 


TSIi^D    ■E^LEn^^I^.Y    COTJIN-OIIL. 


OF    BALTIMORE. 


14453;^w5 


We   Dedicate   this 

emoriitl  fotumc  af  the  §hird  §hmtr^  §owml 

To  the 

Hierarchy,   Clergy   and   Laity 

Of  the 
United  States 

^s  it  ^c^timoiiinl 

To  their   Unwavering   Adherence 

To   all   the    Doctrines 
Of  the 

Catholic   Church. 

THE  BALTIMORE  PUBLISHING  CO. 


APPEOBATIOTT. 


We  give  our  most  cordial  cqil^rohation  to  the  entei'prise  of  The  Baltimore  Pub- 
lishing Conqmny,  The  Memorial  Volume  of  the  Third  PlenOiry  Council  of  Baltimore, 
and  we  trust  that  it  tvill  meet  with  the  hearty  co-operation  of  the  faithful. 


^  JAMES    GIBBOUS. 

Archbishop  of  Baltimore. 


Most  Rev.  James  Gibbons,  D.D. 


PREFACE. 


rrilE  BALTIMORE  PUBLISHING  COMPANY,  in  presenting 
this  volume  to  tlie  public,  trust  that  its  typographical 
appearance  and  the  careful  manner  with  Avhich  its  matter 
has  been  prepared  will  be  appreciated.  It  is  a  work  which 
every  Catholic  family  should  possess. 

The  sermons  of  the  bishops  during  the  council  form,  of 
course,  one  of  the  chief  features  of  the  work.  In  their  crude 
form,  as  reported  by  stenographers,  they  have  been  extensively 
published,  both  at  home  and  abroad ;  thus  showing  the  w^orld- 
wide  interest  taken  in  the  acts  of  the  council.  The  dignified 
Pastoral  Letter  which  follows  them  has  also  received  no  small 
share  of  public  attention,  and  its  patriotic  tone  and  wise  counsels 
have  commended  it  even  to  citizens  of  other  creeds. 

With  regard  to  the  preliminary  matter,  it  is  only  necessary 
for  us  to  say  that  it  has  been  prepared  with  the  greatest  care. 
The  first  article  consists  of  the  Prize  Essay  on  '^  The  Catholic 
Church  in  the  United  States,"  and  will  be  found  a  good  con- 
densed summary  of  our  Church's  origin  and  growth  in  this 
country.  Then  come  a  chronicle  of  the  preceding  Councils  of 
Baltimore,  based  on  the  Latin  records ;  a  history  of  the  Third 
Plenary  Council's  public  acts ;  an  account  of  the  grand  reception 
tendered  by  the  citizens  of  Baltimore  to  the  members  of  the 
Council;  the  congratulations  to  the  Most  Rev.  Apostolic  Dele- 
gate ;  the  acclamations ;  a  list  of  the  members  of  the  Council ; 
a  list  of  the  deceased  members  of  the  Second  Plenary  Council ; 

(3) 


4  PREFACE. 

outline  sketches  of  the  lives  of  the  American  prelates;  and 
the  Pastoral  of  the  Most  Rev.  Archbishop  of  Baltimore  to 
the  clergy  and  laity  of  his  archdiocese.  The  facts  in  the 
sketches  of  the  prelates'  lives  are  authentic.  The  whole  work 
is  embellished  by  portraits  of  the  prelates  and  other  illus- 
trations. 


COHTEKTS. 


Dedication, 1 

Approbation  of  Archbishop  Gibbons, 2 

Preface, 3 

Illustrations, 7 

"The    Catholic    Church    in    the    United    States."      Prize    Essay 

by  John  A.  Eussell,  A.B., 9 

"The  Councils  of  Baltimore."     By  Hugh  P.  McElrone,    .       .  29 

The  Third  Plenary  Council  of  Baltimore, 46 

The  lleccption  to  the  Members  of  the  Council  by  the  Citizens 

of  Baltimore, 52 

Congratulating  the  Apostolic  Delegate, 65 

The  Acclamations, 68 

Members  of   the  Council — A  list  of    their  Names,       ...  70 

Deceased  Prelates  of  the  Second  Plenary  Council,     ....  80 
Lives    of    the    Present    American     Prelates  —  Outline    Sketches, 

Giving  the  Authentic  Facts, 82 

Pastoral   Letter  of   the  Most  Rev.  Archbishop  of   Baltimore  to 

the  Clergy  and  Laity  of   his  Diocese, Ill 

"  The   Church   in   Her  Councils."     By   Most  Rev.  Patrick  John 

Ryan,  D.D.,  Archbishop  of  Philadelphia, 1 

"  The  Catholic  Church  Equally  Opposed  to  Anarchy  and  to 
Despotism,  the  Guardian  of  Society,  the  Defender  of  True 
Liberty."  By  the  Right  Rev.  John  L^eland,  D.D.,  Bishop 
of  St.  Paul,  Minn., 11 

"  De  Mortuis — Our   Deceased  Prelates."     By  the  Most  Rev.  M. 

A.  Corrigan,  D.D.,  Coadjutor  Archbishop  of  Kew  York,     .     .       33 

"  The  Priesthood."  By  the  Most  Rev.  W.  H.  Elder,  D.D.,  Arch- 
bishop of  Cincinnati, 43 

"  The  Unity  of  the  Church."     By  the  Right  Rev.  J.  F.  Shanahan, 

D.D.,  Bishop  of  Harrisburg, 59 

(3) 


6  CONTENTS. ' 

''  The  Missions   for   the    Colored  People."     By  the  Right  Rev. 

^y.  H.    Gross,   D.D.,  Bishop  of  Savannah,  Ga.,      ....        71 
"University  Education  Considered  in  its  Bearings  on  the  Higher 

Education  of  Priests."     By  Right  Rev.  J.  L.  Spalding,  D.D., 

Bishop  of  Peoria,  111.,     » 75 

"  The  Necessity  of  Revelation."     By  the  Right  Rev.  R.  Gilmour, 

D.D.,  Bishop  of -Cleveland, 103 

"Indian    Missions."      By    the   Most    Rev.   C.  J.  Seghers,  D.D., 

Archbishop  of  Oregon  City, 114 

"  Christian  Marriage."     By  the  Right  Rev.  M.  J.  O'Farrell,  D.D., 

Bishop  of  Trenton,  N.  J., 120 

"The  Observation  of  Feasts."     By  the  Right  Rev.  S.  V.  Ryan, 

D.D.,  Bishop  of  Buffalo,  N.  Y., 132 

"Faith  and  Reason."     By  the  Right  Rev.  J.  A.  AVatterson,  D.D., 

Bishop  of  Columbus, 142 

"The  Catholic  Church  in  the  United  States."      By  Right  Rev. 

Bernard  J.  McQuaid,  D.D.,  Bishop  of  Rochester,     .     .     .     .     161 
"The   Sacrifice   of  the   Mass."     By^  Right   Rev.  E.  Fitzgerald, 

D.D.,  Bishop  of  Little  Rock,  Ark., .177 

"Thanksgiving   Day."     By  Right   Rev.    J.    L.    Spalding,  D.D., 

Bishop  of  Peoria,  111., 186 

"Catholic  Societies."      By  Right  Rev.  J.  J.  Keane,  D.D.,  Bishop 

of  Richmond,  "Va., 190 

"The  Church  and  Science."     By  Right  Rev.  Thomas  A.  Becker, 

D.D.,    Bishop    of  Wilmington,  Del., 209 

"The    Catholicity    of    the    Church."      By    Right     Rev.    James 

O'Connor,  D.D.,  Vicar    Apostolic    of  Nebraska,     ....     214 
"The    Sanctity    of   the    Church."     By    Right    Rev.  John  Hen- 

nessy,  D.D.,   Bishop  of  Dubuque, ...     224 

"  The  Work  of  the  Council."      By  Right  Rev.  J.  L.  Spalding, 

D.D.,  Bishop  of  Peoria, 245 

"The    Blessed  Virgin    Mary,  under    the  Title    of  the    Immacu- 
late   Conception,    Patroness    of   the    Cliurch    in    the    United 

States."     By  Right    Rev.    F.    S.    Chatard,    D.D.,   Bishop  of 

Vincennes, 255 

Pastoral  Letter  of  the  Third  Plenary  Council. 
The  Cathedral  Organ, 


ILLUSTRATIOHS. 


1.  His  Holiness  Pope  Leo  XIII.     Frontispiece. 

2.  Most   Rev.  James  Gibbons,  Archbishop    of  Baltimore   and  Apos- 

tolic Delegate. 

3.  His    Eminence    John    Cardinal    McCloskey,    Archbishop    of   New 

York. 

4.  George  Calvert,  Lord    Baltimore,  Founder  of  Maryland  and  Re- 
ligious Freedom  in  America. 

5.  Most  Rev.  John  Carroll,  First  Archbishop  of  Baltimore. 

6.  Most  Rev.  John    J.  Williams,  Archbishop  of  Boston. 

7.  Most  Rev.  P.  J.  Ryan,  Archbishop  of  Philadelphia. 

8.  Interior  View  of  the  Cathedral,  Baltimore. 

9.  Exterior  View  of  the  Cathedral,  Baltimore. 

10.  Exterior  View  of  the  Seminary  where    the  Private  Sessions  were 

held. 

11.  View  of  the  New  Cathedral  Organ. 

12.  Most  Rev.  ISI.  A.  Corrigan,  Coadjutor  Archbishop  of  New  York. 

13.  Most  Rev.  W.  H.  Elder,  Archbishop  of  Cincinnati. 

14.  Most  Rev.  Michael  Heiss,  Archbishop  of  Milwaukee. 

15.  Most  Rev.  P.  A.  Fechan,  Archbishop  of  Chicago. 

16.  Most  Rev.  P.  "NY.  Riordan,  Coadjutor   Archbishop    of  San  Fran- 

cisco. 

17.  Most  Rev.  F.  X.  Leray,  Archbishop  of  New  Orleans. 

18.  One  Group  of  Five  Archbishops  and  Bishops. 

19.  Fourteen  Groups,  Nine  Each,  of  Bishops  and  Other  Members  of 
the  Council. 


His  Eminence  John   Cardinal  McClosket/,  D.D. 


THE  CATHOLIC  CHURCH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


I>IiIZE     ESS-A."5r_ 


BY    JOHN    A.    RUSSELL,    A.B. 


WERE  it  given  to  some  seer  of  the  tenth  century  to  address 
the  future  American  Church  in  the  person  of  the  monk  who 
came  out  from  Ireland  to  Christianize  Iceland,  he  would  use  lan- 
guage full  of  hope  and  promise,  yet  not  unmixed  with  sorrow  and 
regretful  anticipation.  He  would  tell  of  a  northern  nation  con- 
verted to  Christianity  from  gross  idolatry,  and  taught  in  the  arts 
and  the  science  and  the  literature  of  Christian  Europe ;  and  he 
would  add  that  that  Christianity  was  wiped  out  of  existence  by 
the  extinction  of  the  race  which  professed  it.  The  next  chapter 
of  his  prophecy  would  open  on  the  coast  of  San  Salvador  on  that 
October  day  when,  after  months  of  battling  with  the  ocean's  storms, 
Columbus  planted  the  cross  of  the  Crucified  One  on  the  shores 
of  the  newly  found  continent ;  and  before  that  chapter  were  fin- 
ished he  would  have  recorded  the  humiliation  and  ingratitude 
which  were  the  portion  of  the  same  Columbus  before  his  eyes 
were  closed  in  death.  Joy  and  sorrow,  toil  and  suffering,  hope 
and  even  despair  Avould  be  his  themes  ere  he  would  tell  the  story 
of  the  firm  foundation  of  the  American  Church.  And  that  tale 
would  scarcely  be  ended  before  he  would  have  to  modify  it  with 
recitals  of  the  storms  which  the  Church  had  to  buffet  and  the 
trials  which  she  had  to  undergo  before  her  priests  were  venerated 
tmd  her  children  respected  as  was  their  due.  Marking  as  the 
•opening  of  the  Third  Plenary  Council  does  the  beginning  of  a 
new  era  in  the  Catholic  history  of  America,  an  excellent  oppor- 
tunity is  afforded  to  look  back  and  take  a  retrospect  of  what 
that  seer  might  have  told  by  anticipation.  Such  is  the  object  of 
this  monograph, — briefly  to  consider  the  Rise  and  Progress  of  the 
Catholic   Church  in   the   United  States. 

9 


10  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

I. 

Catholicity  is  nothing  new  in  America.  Away  back  in  the 
eleventh  century,  before  England  had  fallen  under  the  dominion 
of  Danish  kings,  while  the  monk  Gerbert  occupied  the  chair  of 
Peter  under  the  title  of  Sylvester  II,  and  just  after  the  combined 
Christian  princes  of  Spain  had  routed  the  armies  of  Almanzor, 
the  Moor,  there  were  Norse  settlements  in  Iceland  and  on  the 
shores  of  the  North  American  continent,  where  altars  were  raised 
to  the  true  God,  and  where  priests  chanted  His  praises  and  people 
adored  Him  with  a  fervor  unexcelled  in  any  of  Europe's  strong- 
holds of  faith.  As  early  as  the  year  1000,  missionaries  were 
working  for  the  conversion  of  Iceland.  They  found  their  task 
neither  tedious  nor  difficult ;  and  in  the  course  of  sixteen  years 
the  stone  gods  of  the  Vikings  were  overturned,  and  in  their  stead 
were  erected  altars  to  Him  who,  loving  all,  redeemed  all.  Nor 
did  the  work  end  here.  Not  contented  with  the  limits  placed  by  a 
small  island,  the  sons  of  men  who  had  taken  refuge  from  a  tyrant 
on  the  high  seas  once  more  boldly  struck  out,  and  following  the 
coast  of  the  mainland,  penetrated  to  Vinland,  now  New  England. 
There  is  proof  positive  that  the  colonists  in  Vinland  maintained 
their  profession  of  the  faith  in  which  their  fathers  and  brothers 
believed.  Thus  was  Catholicity  implanted  in  America  at  an  early 
date ;  thus  were  priests  employed ;  and  thus  was  the  flock  devel- 
oped which  was  watched  over  by  the  Bishop  of  Garda.  There 
was  no  lack  of  progress  on  the  part  of  the  Icelandic  Church,  which, 
founded  at  a  time  when  Europeans  were  anxiously  and  fearfully 
awaiting  the  Milennium,  promised  to  become  one  of  the  brightest 
jewels  of  the  Roman  crown. 

All  things  earthly  seem  forced  to  run  in  a  mad  race  towards 
dissolution.  The  Norse  colonies  within  the  shadow  of  the  Arctic 
circle  were  no  exception  to  this  general  rule.  For  a  time  they 
prospered,  and  with  them  the  religion  of  their  inhabitants.  But  by  one 
of  those  terrestrial  changes  which  can  never  be  sufficiently  accounted 
for,  the  gulf  stream  sliiftcd  its  course  and  left  Greenland  and  Ice- 
land bereft  of  that  influence  which  had  tempered  the  rigor  of  the 
polar  gales.  The  climatic  changes  attendant  upon  the  fluctuation 
of  the  gulf  stream  turned  Iceland  and  Greenland  into  barren 
wastes,     habitable    only    by    rude    and    hardy    tribes.     The    Norse 


THE  CATIIOLIG  CHURCH  IN  THE   UNITED  STATES.  11 

oolonies  were  wiped  oat,  and  by  the  extinction  as  a  race  of  those 
who  professed  Catholicity  in  the  North,  the  history  of  the  Norse- 
American  Church  was  closed  forever.  Thus  ended  one  period  of 
the  Church  in  America.  That  period  was  as  separate  and  distinct 
from  any  which  followed,  as  it  was  original  and  independent  of 
any  that  went  before.  It  bequeathed  to  later  ages  no  influences, 
and  it  left  behind  it  no  effects  other  than  the  ruined  altars  and 
the  half  obliterated  inscriptions  subsequently  discovered  in  Greenland 
and  Vinland. 

It  was  not  long,  comparatively,  until  the  next  epoch  of  American 
-Catholicity  began.  Columbus  came  in  1492,  and  his  return  to 
Spain  with  tales  of  his  wonderful  discovery  and  of  the  strange 
races  to  whom  the  true  God  was  an  unknown  Being  and  His 
worship  a  mystery,  marked  the  beginning  of  the  new  era.  Earnest 
men  began  to  assert  and  skeptical  ones  to  half  admit  that  perhaps 
there  were  yet  nations  to  be  won  over  to  Christ  and  to  be  marshaled 
tinder  His  banner.  Brave  souls  followed  in  the  Avake  of  Colum- 
bus, and  every  vessel  that  left  the  ports  of  Spain  brought  with 
it  to  America  one  or  more  of  those  Intrepid  missionaries  who 
were  born  for  higher  things  than  ordinary  men,  and  who  braved 
old  ocean's  storms  and  the  trials  and  tortures  which  they  could 
only  faintly  Imagine,  in  behalf  of  the  cause  of  Christ.  Half  a 
century's  work  wrought  a  great  change.  By  the  middle  of  the 
sixteenth  century  Ponce  de  Leon,  the  missionaries  Avho  accompanied 
and  fell  with  Narvaez,  the  companions  of  De  Soto,  and  the  Domini- 
cans who  followed  under  Father  Career,  had  all  left  their  imprint  on 
the  soil  of  Florida,  Alabama  and  Mississippi,  and  their  influence 
in  the  hearts  of  tlie  Indians  who  basked  In  the  rays  of  an  almost 
tropical  sun.  Farther  west  the  devoted  Franciscan,  Andrew  de 
Olmos,  was  at  work  in  Mexico,  and  in  the  North  Jacques  Cartier 
and  his  followers  forgot  not  the  religion  which  they  had  known  in 
sunny  France.  And  thus  it  followed  that  before  the  beginning  of 
the  seventeenth  century  that  portion  of  the  American  continent 
lying  east  of  the  Mississippi  river  had  been  traversed  by  a  band 
of  missionaries,  not  great  in  numbers,  but  strong  In  ardor  and 
perseverance.  The  reports  of  the  successes  of  this  forlorn  hope 
found  many  eager  students  in  the  novitiates  and  seminaries  of 
Europe,  and  it  was  not  long  until  new  spirits  were  enlisted  In  the 
work    of  Christianizing    the    savages    of    America.       No    history  can 


12  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

be  more  interesting,  no  romance  more  fascinating,  no  tragedy 
more  touching  than  the  record  of  the  lives  and  the  labors,  the 
trials  and  the  sufferings  of  the  early  missionaries  in  America. 
Nearly  three  centuries  have  passed  away  since  they  advanced 
through  the  West  and  the  South, — the  pioneers  of  civilization  and 
the  heralds  of  faith.  To-day  their  missions  still  exist  among  the  few 
Indians  who  linger  about  Sault-Ste.-Marie  and  the  islands  of  Green 
Bay ;  while  at  this  distant  time  traditions  of  the  "  Black  Robes "  are 
fondly  treasured  np  by  the  wild,  roving  Indians  of  the  North.  On 
the  moss-grown  trees  we  yet  see  the  carved  cross,  surmounted  by 
the  characteristic  motto,  A.M.D.G.,  to  remind  the  traveler  that  he 
treads  upon  ground  hallowed  by  the  footsteps  of  saints.  Thus  the 
stately  pines  of  the  Saginaw  Valley,  the  tall  cedars  of  Sault-Ste.- 
Marie  and  the  giant  oaks  and  the  gnarled  cherry  trees  of  the 
Green  Bay  region  all  bear  witness  to  the  zeal  and  the  burning 
jsiety  of  the  early  Jesuit  missionaries.  Those  grand  old  woods 
formed  the  cathedral  arches  through  which  re-echoed  the  solemn 
tones  of  the  Tantum  Ergo.  Those  silent  oratories  were  the  .scenes 
of  fasts  and  weary  watches,  all  offered  -to  the  Most  High  for  the 
conversion  of  the  degraded  Indians.  Through  those  v/oods  men 
of  piety  and  genius  and  noble  birth  trod  their  uncertain  way  from 
one  scene  of  torture  to  another.  Sacrificing  all  that  was  great  in 
the  eyes  of  the  world,  all  that  promised  a  life  of  ease  and  com- 
fort and  luxury,  they  crossed  the  bleak  Atlantic  and  made  their 
way  up  the  St.  Lawrence  to  Montreal.  There  they  separated. 
Some  few  remained  to  minister  to  the  spiritual  wants  of  the  post. 
Others  went  south,  never  to  return.  Some,  again,  went  to  the 
wild  shores  of  Lakes  Huron  and  Superior,  where  they  labored  and 
suffered  until,  when  their  thankless  task  was  finished,  they  offered 
up  their  pure  and  well-tried  souls  to  their  Creator.  A  goodly 
number  succumbed  to  the  tortures  of  barbarous  Indians.  The  wild 
shrieks  of  the  Iroquois  formed  the  fitting  requiems  of  Breboeuf 
and  Daniel.  The  sainted  Marquette  and  the  venerable  Menard, 
worn  out  by  toil  and  age  and  torture,  knelt  down  to  pray  beside 
some  giant  tree ;  and  there,  far  from  the  land  of  their  birth,  far 
from  all  that  was  near  and  dear  to  tliem,  they  passed  away. 
Where  their  relics  lie  concealed  only  the  great  recording  angel 
knows. 

Nor    did    the  work   of  these    men    die  with    them.     They  studied 


(reorge  Calmrt,   First  Lord   Baltimnre. 


THE  CATHOLIG  CEURCS  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  13 

the  nature  of  the  country,  its  features  and  its  resources,  and  all 
these  they  incorporated  into  their  contributions  to  that  great  and 
reliable  source  of  American  history,  the  "Relations  de  Jesuites."  To 
the  early  missionaries,  then,  we  owe  much.  To  them  we  owe  the 
civilization  of  almost  every  portion  of  the  country.  Their  missions 
in  lands  made  fertile  by  the  blood  of  martyrs,  have  grown  great. 
The  mission  of  Sault-Ste. -Marie  is  now  an  episcopal  see.  The 
mission  of  Kaskaskia  has  grown  to  a  metropolis,  known  the  world 
over.  For  their  labors  we  can  never  repay  them ;  for  their  troubles 
no  eulogium  can  be  a  sufficient  recompense ;  for  their  faults,  if 
they   had   any,   a   merciful    God    has    given    pardon. 

But  it  is  not  yet  of  these  that  this  necessarily  brief  sketch 
must  treat.  It  must  pass  over  in  silence  works  worthy  of  being 
graven  on  plates  of  brass  and  written  on  stone  with  a  stylus  of 
iron  in  order  that  due  attention  may  be  paid  to  a  later  and,  to 
Catholics  of  the  present  day,  a  more  important  period.  The  growth 
of  the  Catholic  Church  in  the  United  States,  prior  to  the  Revo- 
lution, was  not  that  of  the  sturdy  oak,  whose  roots  grow  stronger 
and  thicker  with  each  succeeding  year.  It  was  rather  like  the 
mosses  which  cluster  round  the  trunk,  and  which,  beautiful  though 
they  may  bo,  are  easily  uprooted.  We  must  look,  then,  for  the 
real  birth  of  the  existing  American  Church  to  a  later  period  than 
that  which  is  glorified  by  the  labors  of  the  early  missionaries ; 
we  must  pass  on  to  that  period  which  began  just  before  the  first 
episcopal  see  was  established  in  America,  when  the  priests  were 
few   and  those  few  worn   by  toil  and  service. 

II. 

Before  the  thirteen  original  States  had  thrown  off  the  garb  of 
adolescent  dependence  and  had  assumed  the  toga  of  independent 
manliood,  the  various  missions  which  comprised  the  American 
Church  were  attached  to  tlie  jurisdictions  of  the  parent  nations. 
Florida  was  administered  from  Spain ;  the  priests  of  the  North- 
west owed  ecclesiastical  obedience  to  superiors  in  France ;  the 
Jesuit  missionaries  looked  to  Rome  for  counsel  and  direction;  while 
the  few  priests  who  were  stationed  in  the  States  on  the  Atlantic 
coast  received  comparatively  little  attention  from  the  Vicar  Apos- 
tolic  of  London.     The    change   from   dependence  to   independence   on 


14  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

the  part  of  the  colonies  wrought  a  corresponding  change  in  the- 
government  of  the  American  Church.  The  feeling  against  the 
parent  nation  was  so  strong  at  the  close  of  the  Revolution  that 
there  was  a  manifest  impropriety  in  having  the  American  clergy 
derive  their  ecclesiastical  authority  from  the  English  vicar  apos- 
tolic. This  dignitary  was  represented  in  the  colony  of  Maryland 
by  the  Rev.  Father  Lewis,  wdio  had  been  Superior  of  the  American 
Mission  of  the  Society  of  Jesus  before  the  suppression  of  the 
Order.  A  change  was  speedily  effected.  In  1784  the  regular  clergy 
of  the  United  States,  w'ho  numbered  not  more  than  thirty  at  most, 
united  in  a  petition  to  the  Holy  See  for  the  appointment  of  a 
superior  or  vicar  apostolic,  who  should  have  all  the  necessary 
faculties  of  a  bishop.  Rome  had  anticipated  the  request  of  the 
clergy  of  the  then  promising  American  mission ;  and  the  Sacred 
Congregation  was  already  discussing  the  propriety  of  an  episcopal 
appointment  for  the  new  country,  when  the  petition  of  the  clergy 
was  presented.  A  favorable  answer  was  at  once  returned,  and 
with  it  came  the  official  notice  of  the  appointment  of  the  Rev. 
John  Carroll  as  superior.  He  was  already  nearly  fifty  years  of 
age.  A  native  of  Maryland,  he  had  been  educated  in  England 
and  France,  and  had  been  a  member  of  the  Society  of  Jesus 
until  the  issuance  of  the  famous  brief  of  Clement  XIV.  In 
obedience  to  that  mandate  he  dissolved  his  connection  with  the 
order  at  Bruges,  and  after  tarrying  in  England  for  a  brief  period 
he  returned  to  his  native  land.  There  he  found  a  state  of 
affairs  which  was  interesting  from  whatever  point  it  was  viewed. 
Politically,  all  was  anxiety  and  dissatisfaction  at  the  manner  in 
which  the  mother  country  had  dealt  Avith  the  colonies.  Little  evi- 
dence of  religious  life  existed.  The  priests  were  few,  their  charges 
onerous,  and  the  conditions  under  which  they  Avorked  were  not 
always  favorable.  He  took  up  his  residence  vvith  his  mother  at 
Rock  Creek,  ten  miles  from  the  present  city  of  Washington.  From 
a  chapel  on  her  estate  he  ministered  to  the  spiritual  wants  of 
the  Catholics  of  the  surrounding  country.  On  the  breaking  out 
of  the  war  of  1776  he  espoused  the  cause  which  was  ennobled 
by  the  services  of  his  illustrious  relative  of  Carrollton.  From  the 
first  he  was  ardent  in  liis  support  of  the  principles  of  the  Revo- 
lution. He  early  recognized  the  incompatibility  of  the  English 
temperament    with    that    of    the    American    colonists  ;    and    he    felt 


THE  CATJIOLIG  CHURCH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  15 

that  perfect  religious  freedom  might  be  implanted  in  the  nation 
to  be  formed  if  the  war  had  a  successfid  outcome.  His  learning 
and  his  judgment  were  early  recognized,  and  during  the  war  he 
was  appointed  one  of  four  commissioners  to  visit  Quebec  in  the 
hope  of  gaining  the  active  co-operation  of  the  Canadians,  or  at 
least  of  obtaining  from  them  a  promise  of  neutrality.  The  com- 
missioners failed  in  their  first  purpose,  becalise  the  Canadians 
remembered  that  the  New  England  colonies  had  included  among 
their  grievances  against  the  British  crown  the  "  intolerable  tyranny 
of  the  King  of  England  in  allowing  the  practice  of  the  Popish 
religion  in  Canada."  But  Father  Carroll  secured,  by  his  entreaties, 
the  neutrality  of  our  northern  neighbors,  before  he  returned  to 
Maryland  to  resume    the   active  charge    of  his    Hock    Creek    Mission. 

Such,  briefly,  was  the  career  of  John  Carroll,  priest  of  the 
Society  of  Jesus,  up  to  the  time  of  his  appointment  as  superior 
of  the  American  clergy.  The  choice  gave  universal  satisfaction,  for 
Father  Carroll  was  respected  by  Protestants  and  Catholics  alike. 
He  at  once  entered  upon  the  duties  of  his  new  and,  in  some 
respects,  unique  dignity.  The  Church  at  that  time  was  not  strong 
nor  were  its  adherents  of  the  most  fervent  character.  The  lack 
of  priestly  ministrations  and  counsel  had  resulted  in  many  cases 
in  causing  whole  settlements  to  become  lukewarm.  These  Father 
Carroll  sought  to  reach.  The  first  difficulty  that  stood  in  his  way 
was  the  lack  of  priests.  This  was  partially  obviated  by  the  immi- 
gration of  a  number  of  priests  from  Europe.  Pastors  were  at 
once  sent  to  parishes  in  New  England,  the  Carolinas  and  Kentucky, 
in  which  State  there  was  a  Catholic  population  of  four  thousand 
souls.  For  himself,  in  spite  of  his  dignity,  he  worked  from  early 
morning  until  late  at  night  in  the  cause  of  religion.  Journeys  for 
the  administation  of  the  sacraments  were  made  to  the  most  distant 
parts  of  the  district,  over  which  he  had  authority.  The  priests  in 
almost  all  cases  became  imbued  with  the  fervor  of  their  superior, 
and  redoubled  their  efforts  in  the  vineyard  of  the  Lord. 

For  five  years  Father  Carroll  occupied  the  position  of  superior 
of  the  American  clergy.  In  1789,  the  prosperity  and  rapid  growth 
of  the  Church  suggested  the  propriety  of  the  appointment  of  a 
bishop.  The  authority  of  the  vicar  general  was  not  sufficiently 
extensive ;  and  his  lack  of  some  powers  was  the  cause  of  insu])or- 
dination   on   the   part   of  a   few   priests,   who   refused    to  bow  before. 


16  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

any  but  an  episcopal  mandate.  The  clergy  applied  to  Rome  for 
the  foundation  of  an  American  see,  and  soon  received  a  favorable 
answer,  coupled  with  the  privileges  of  selecting  the  see  and  nomina- 
ting; its  first  incumbent.  Tlie  choice  was  soon  made  and  forwarded 
to  Rome.  By  a  bull  of  November  6,  1789,  Pope  Pius  VI 
designated  the  city  of  Baltimore  as  the  Episcopal  see,  and  ap- 
pointed John  Carroll  Bishop  and  Pastor  of  its  Cathedral  Church. 
This  was  more  than  Dr.  Carroll  had  expected.  Fearing  lest  his 
position  as  superior  of  the  American  clergy  might  suggest  the 
choice  of  his  name,  he  Avas  careful  to  frustrate  every  movement 
that  might  lead  to  his  nomination.  But  he  accepted  the  call  and 
in  the  summer  of  1790,  he  sailed  for  England.  Arrived  there  he 
presented  himself  before  Right  Rev.  Charles  Walmsley,  Vicar-Apos- 
tolic of  London,  for  consecration.  The  ceremony  took  place  in  the 
private  chapel  of  a  wealthy  Commoner,  Thomas  Weld,  who  proffered 
his  hospitality  to  Bishop  Carroll  during  his  stay  in  England. 
When  he  had  been  vested  with  all  the  power  and  dignity  of  his 
office,  the  bishop  sailed  for  the  country  to  which  he  was  now 
bound  by  a  stronger  tie,  to  which  he  stood  in  a  holier  relation, 
than  any  man  had  stood  before.  He  appreciated  his  responsibilities 
and  bent  every  effort  toward  making  his  administration  successful 
for  the  Church.  Before  leaving  England  he  had  arranged  with  the 
Sulpicians  who  were  driven  from  France,  for  the  establishment 
of  a  theological  school  in  his  see,  in  order  that  he  might  draw 
on  the  rising  generation  in  America  for  laborers  in  the  vineyard, 
lie  attended  personally  to  all  the  duties,  clerical  and  otherwise,  of 
his  office,  a  task  which  entailed  iio  small  amount  of  labor.  From 
all  parts  came  requests  for  priests  and  complaints  of  insufficient 
attention,  occasionally  varied  by  a  dispute  between  a  clergyman 
and  his  congregation.  All  these  matters  Bishop  Carroll  had  to 
adjudicate.  He  sought  not  only  to  conserve  and  consolidate  the 
existing  Church,  but  also  to  extend  it.  A  number  of  fortuitous 
circumstances  assisted  him  in  carrying  out  his  generous  design. 
On  the  dying  out  of  that  opposition  to  the  Society  of  Jesus  which 
had  wrung  from  Pope  Clement  the  bull  of  suppression,  the  exiled 
and  separated  Fathers  of  the  order  were  called  from  the  seclusion 
in  which  they  had  spent  years.  Through  the  halls  of  seminaries 
and  educational  institutions,  through  the  corridors  of  prisons  and 
jails,    through   the    forests    and    the    morasses    of    half-known    lands 


Most  RpA\  John  Carroll,   Firf^l  Archbishop  of  Baltiinore. 


THE  CATHOLIG  CHURCH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  17 

Tang  the  permission  of  the  Holy  See  for  the  establishment  of  the 
order.  The  words  were  sweet  music  in  the  ears  of  the  noble 
disciples  of  Loyola,  and  in  a  brief  time  the  society  was  once  more 
ready  for  the  strife,  weak  and  wounded,  it  is  true,  yet  still  full 
of  courage  and  hope.  Bishop  Carroll  needed  all  the  help  possible 
to  enable  him  to  carry  out  his  work;  and  he  was  not  slow  in 
■enlisting  in  his  support  the  men  who  spend  half  a  lifetime  in 
learning  how  to  do  the  greatest  good  in  the  other  half.  But  the 
Jesuits  were  not  the  only  forces  who  came  to  his  aid.  Infidel 
ascendancy  in  France  had  filled  the  religious  heavens  with  dark 
iind  lowering  clouds.  Persecution  was  going  on  in  some  places, 
and  in  other  localities  no  one  knew  how  soon  the  lash  would  be 
applied.  This  state  of  affairs  resulted  in  the  emigration  to  America 
•of  a  number  of  brilliant  ecclesiastics,  w'ho  offered  their  services 
to  Bishop  Carroll.  The  aid  was  opportune,  and  from  these  recruits, 
the  American  Church  has  selected  such  names  as  Matignon,  Chev- 
<3rus  and  Richard  for  veneration.  Ten  years  go  by  quickly,  and 
Avhen  they  are  past  it  is  only  in  rare  instances  that  it  can  be 
said  that  any  special  good  has  been  done  during  their  continuance. 
But  the  decade  which  followed  the  consecration  of  Bishop  Carroll 
was  prolific  in  good.  Its  beginning  saw  a  Church  without  an 
episcopal  head,  without  sufiftcient  workers  to  attend  to  its  wants, 
without  either  schools  or  seminaries  in  which  to  train  the  Catholic 
3'outh  of  the  young  republic.  The  opening  of  the  present  century 
witnessed  as  the  head  of  the  American  Church  a  man  possessed 
of  the  most  consummate  administrative  ability.  The  number  of 
priests  had  increased  and  with  them  flocks  had  grown  in  extent 
and  devotion.  All  promised  well  for  the  Catholic  Church  in 
America  at  the  beginning  of  the  initial  year  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury. The  Church  was  consolidated  and  the  efforts  of  the  pastors 
Avere  directed  to  a  common  end.  All  was  harmony  and  every  one 
was  filled  with  a  desire  for  the  growth  of  Catholicity.  Young  men 
came  forward  to  perform  the  sacred  duties  of  the  ministry,  and 
by  the  year  1810,  there  were  in  the  country  nearly  one  hundred 
priests,  in  charge  of  as  many  congregations.  A  new  life  was 
breathed  into  the  American  Church,  formed  as  it  had  been  from  a 
.spiritual  rib  of  the  almost  dormant  religious  Adam  of  the  Old  World. 
Rome  was  not  insensible  to  the  advances  in  the  new  world,  and 
at    an    early    date    the    Sacred    Congregation    of    the    Propaganda   saw 


18  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

that  the  burthen  borne  by  Bishop  Carroll  was  too  heavy  for  even 
his  strong  and  willing  shoulders.  Some  years  before  Rev.  Leonard 
Neale,  president  of  Georgetown  College,  had  been  made  coadjutor 
to  tlie  Bishop  of  Baltimore,  cum  jure  successionis.  But  instead  of 
alleviating  the  cares  of  Bishop  Carroll  this  new  move  only  sought 
to  enlarge  his  usefulness  by  allov;ing  him  to  look  over  portions  of 
his  field  which  had  been  liitherto  neglected.  The  Diocese  of  Balti- 
more then  included  that  entire  portion  of  the  United  States  lying 
south  of  the  St.  Lawrence  river  and  the  Great  Lakes.  It  stretched 
from  Michigan  to  Florida  and  from  Maine  to  Missouri.  It  in- 
cluded among  its  charges  the  civilized  Indians  of  Maine  and  the 
savages  of  the  Northwest  territory ;  and  as  if  all  these  did  not 
entail  sufficient  responsibility,  a  portion  of  the  West  Indies  owed 
spiritual  allegiance  to  the  Bishop  of  Baltimore.  With  the  increase 
of  the  American  Church  the  burden  became  too  great  for  one  man, 
and  a  division  was  made.  Dr.  Carroll  was  raised  to  the  dignity  of 
Archbishop,  and  four  suffragan  dioceses  were  created  with  their  respec- 
tive sees  at  Philadelphia,  Boston,  New  York,  and  Bardstown,  in  Ken- 
tucky. The  bishops  appointed  to  fill  the  episcopal  chairs  thus  created 
were:  Dr.  Egan,  for  Philadelphia;  Dr.  Cheverus,  for  Boston;  Dr. 
Concannon,  for  New  York,  and  Dr.  Flaget,  for  Bardstown.  All  were 
holy  ecclesiastics,  whose  earnest  labors  had  rendered  them  in  every 
manner  worthy  of  the  dignity  with  which  they  were  honored.  Three 
of  the  appointees  (for  Dr.  Concannon  died  in  Naples  just  before 
the  time  he  intended  to  sail  for  America)  presented  themselves  in 
St.  Peter's  Church,  Baltimore,  for  consecration  on  the  Sunday  pre- 
ceding and  the  Sunday  following  the  Feast  of  All  Saints  in  the  year 
1810.  After  their  consecration  Archbishop  Carroll  took  the  occasion 
of  their  presence  to  hold  a  conference  on  matters  relating  to  the 
discipline  and  the  future  government  of  the  American  Church.  The 
conference  over,  the  Archbishop  was  relieved  of  much  of  the  anxiety 
attendant  upon  tlie  administration  of  so  extensive  a  diocese,  and  he 
devoted  his  spare  time  and  the  remnant  of  his  enormous  energy 
to  building  up  the  educational  and  charitable  institutions  attached 
to  the  primatial  see,  and  for  five  years  the  destinies  of  the  Ameri- 
can Church  were  guided  by  this  holy  man  in  a  spirit  of  prudence 
and  judgment. 

The     year     1815    was     ebbing    out    when    John    Carroll,    priest, 
patriot,    and   successor   of    the   Apostles,  was    stricken   with    sickness 


THE  CATHOLIC  CHURCH  IN  THE   UNITED  STATES.  19 

unto  death.  In  spite  of  his  eighty  years,  in  spite  of  his  labors  and 
privations,  in  spite  of  the  length  of  the  period  he  had  figured  in 
American  ecclesiastical  affairs,  there  were  many  who  thought  that 
the  end  was  not  yet.  But  they  were  mistaken.  Representatives  of 
the  gay  society  with  which  he  often  mingled,  and  the  expounders 
of  strange  creeds  to  whoni  he  was  a  living  sermon  and  who  loved 
him  as  one  of  their  own,  gathered  about  the  death-bed  of  the 
primate  and  joined  in  the  prayers  for  the  departing  soul,  to  which 
the  dying  lips  made  clear  and  unequivocal  response.  Within  the 
shadow  of  St.  Peter's,  stretched  on  the  floor  that  he  might  die 
the  more  humbly,  and  with  ^^  Miserere  mci^'  on  his  lips,  the  Ameri- 
can   patriarch    passed    away  on    the    9th    of  December,   1815. 

There  arc  at  long  intervals  men  whose  lives  are  the  keys  to 
movements  and  whose  existence  furnishes  the  index  to  the  history 
of  the  circles  in  which  tliey  moved.  Such  a  man  was  Dr.  Car- 
roll. He  became  liead  of  the  American  Church  at  a  time  when 
its  future  successful  existence  was  little  more  than  a  hope ;  and 
he  closed  his  eyes  with  the  satisfaction  that  he  had  been  instru- 
mental in  the  realization  of  that  hope.  He  was  the  embodiment 
of  those  religious  principles  and  that  holy  energy  which  marked 
the  early  periods  of  Catholicity  in  the  United  States.  No  apology 
is,  therefore,  required  for  giving  to  him  so  large  a  portion  of 
the    space    devoted    to    a  period   of  which   he  was   the   central  figure. 

III. 

There  were  a  few  who  feared  that  when  the  directing  hand  of 
Archbishop  Carroll  was  removed  from  the  American  Church  its 
progress  would  not  be  as  great  or  as  rapid  as  it  had  been.  But 
the  destinies  of  the  Church  of  Christ  depend  on  no  human  agen- 
cies, and  the  greatest  saint  who  may  rule  that  Churcli  is  only  the 
instrument  of  the  Omnipotent.  The  removal  by  death  of  the  ven- 
erable archbishop  was,  no  doubt,  a  great  blow  to  American  Catho- 
lics. Every  one  felt  as  if  he  had  lost  a  personal  friend,  as  indeed 
he  had.  But  all  knew  that  the  only  proper  way  to  do  honor  to 
the  memory  of  the  patriarch  was  to  follow  in  his  footsteps  and  to 
walk  in  the  path  which  he  had  marked  out.  The  Church  continued 
to  grow.  Its  numbers  were  increased  by  immigration  from  the  Old 
World   and    conversion  in  the  New.     At  times  scandal  was  given  by 


20  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

insubordinate  priests,  who  felt  that  Archbishop  Carroll's  successors,  the 
Most  Revs.  Leonard  Neale  and  Ambrose  Marechal,  were  not  possessed 
of  the  firmness  which  had  characterized  the  rule  of  the  first  bishop 
of  the  United  States.  In  this,  however,  they  were  mistaken  and 
the  scandal  given  by  rebellious  ecclesiastics  of  Charleston,  Norfolk 
and  Philadelphia  was  in  part  repaired  by  an  exposition  of  the 
true  character  of  the  rebellious  men.  The  Sees  of  Charleston  and 
St.  Louis  were  added  to  the  suffragans  of  the  See  of  Baltimore. 
The  See  of  Charleston  was  presided  over  by  Bishop  England,  who 
had  been  called  from  the  parish  of  Bandon,  Ireland,  to  assume 
the  direction  of  the  Church  in  the  Carolinas.  He  was  a  man  pos- 
sessed of  the  most  penetrating  judgment,  and  he  was  early  struck 
with  the  necessity  of  co-operation  on  the  part  of  tlie  bishops. 
There  were  evils  prevalent  in  all  the  existing  dioceses  which 
threatened  to  mar  the  harmonious  existence  of  the  American 
Church.  One  of  these  was  the  system  of  lay  trusteeism,  which 
had  a  tendency  towards  the  disruption  of  congregations.  There 
were  other  evils  of  as  great  magnitude  which  had  to  be  coped 
with.  United  action  was  necessary,  a  uniform  rule  was  desirable. 
In  order  to  arrive  at  such  unity  it  occurred  to  Bishop  England 
that  a  council  of  prelates  would  be  of  incalculable  assistance  by 
facilitating  the  interchange  of  opinions  and  ideas.  He  communicated 
his  plan  to  the  Metropolitan,  Archbishop  James  AVhitfield,  with  the 
result  that  the  latter  issued  an  invitation  to  all  the  prelates  under 
his  jurisdiction  to  meet  in  the  first  Provincial  Council  of  Balti- 
more in  the  autumn  of  1829.  The  occasion  was  a  memorable  one, 
marking  as  it  did  the  beginning  of  uniformity  in  the  discipline  of 
the  American  Church.  Besides  Archbishop  Whitfield  there  were 
present  at  this  council  Bishops  England,  Flaget  and  Rosati  and 
the  two  Fenwicks,  who  filled  the  Sees  of  Boston  and  Cincinnati. 
The  council  sat  for  several  days,  and  embodied  its  work  in  thirty- 
eight  decrees,  which  subsequently  received  tlie  approbation  of  the 
Holy  See.  No  little  prudence  and  forethought  was  required  of 
the  assembled  prelates.  They  were  legislating  for  the  half  million 
Catholics  of  our  day  and  perhaps  for  as  many  more  who  should 
succeed  them  before  another  council  was  held.  The  bishops  did 
not  betray  their  trust,  and  as  a  consequence  their  decrees  have 
received  uniform  respect  and  commanded  unvarying  obedience  dur- 
ing    all     the     years     that     have     elapsed     since     their     formulation. 


THE  CATHOLIC  CHURCH  IN  THE   UNITED  STATES.  21 

Besides  dealing  with  other  important  matters  the  decrees  tended 
towards  checking  the  abuses  attendant  upon  lay-trusteeism  and 
towards    the    establishment    of  a    Catholic    book    concern. 

It  was  in  the  '30's  that  that  incessant  stream  of  immigration, 
which  has  since  continued  with  uninterrupted  vigor,  began  to  flow 
from  Ireland.  Seven  centuries  of  persecution  had  so  worked  upon 
the  Irish  mind  that  even  when  O'Connell  wrung  from  the  British 
government  the  deed  of  Irish  religious  independence,  there  were 
many  who  feared  that  the  concession  was  made  for  some  occult 
purpose.  Across  the  sea  they  saw  an  independent  and  a  prosperous 
land,  which  held  out  a  constant  invitation  to  all  who  sought 
escape  from  tyranny,  and  who  yearned  for  freedom.  The  invitation 
was  accepted,  and  from  that  day  to  this  the  Irish  race  has  been 
furnishing  more  than  its  share  of  intellect  and  genius  and  talent 
to  the  American  Church.  The  influx  of  so  many  immigrants  did 
much  to  increase  the  number  of  American  Catholics.  They  crowded 
into  the  cities,  and  made  their  uncertain  way  into  the  western  re- 
gions of  the  country;  and  wherever  they  went  they  brought  with 
them  their  priests  and  erected  their  altars.  Changes  took  place ; 
new  dioceses  were  created,  and  in  some  cases  the  incumbents  of 
old  ones  resigned  their  charges,  while  others  passed  to  their  re- 
ward. In  the  course  of  time  the  advisability  of  holding  a  second 
council  became  apparent,  and  it  was  convened  in  1837  by  Arch- 
bishop AVhitfield,  who  had  presided  over  the  first  assemblage  of 
American  prelates.  The  council  effected  changes  in  the  methods  of 
episcopal  nominations,  and  devoted  much  of  its  time  to  a  discus- 
sion of  missions  for  the  conversion  of  the  negroes  of  Liberia  and 
the  Indians  of  the  Northwest.  By  general  consent  both  these 
charges  were  confided  to  the  Society  of  Jesus,  which  took  up  the 
work  with  alacrity,  and  resumed  among  the  Indians  the  missions 
which  had  been  commenced  by  the  school  of  Jogues  and  Menard, 
and  they  did  not  relinquish  them  until  1850,  when  one  of  their 
number,  Rev.  John  Baptist  Miege,  was  raised  to  the  episcopal 
dignity,  and  the  Indian  Territory  made  a  vicariate  apostolic. 
During  the  years  that  followed,  provincial  councils  Averc  convened 
at  Baltimore  at  intervals  of  four  or  five  years,  and  the  wisdom 
and  the  piety  which  marked  the  councils  when  they  represented 
the  nation  continued  to  be  their  characteristic  when  other  archi- 
episcopates   were    formed,  and    Baltimore    ceased    to    be    the  only  seat 


22  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

of  an  American  archbishop.  Important  suggestions  were  made  at 
these  councils  with  regard  to  discipline,  and  not  the  least  important 
of  their  acts  was  the  declaration  of  the  seventh  Council  of  Balti- 
more (convened  in  Mayj  1849),  that  the  definition  by  the  Pope  of 
the  Immaculate  Conception  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  Mary  as  a  dogma 
of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  would  be  looked  upon  with  great 
satisfaction  by  the  prelates.  In  the  newly  created  provinces  pro- 
vincial councils  were  likewise  held,  and  decrees  formulated  which 
received  the  sanction  of  the  Holy  Father.  But  these  decrees  had 
a  binding  force  which  was  purely  local  in  character.  They  failed 
to  bear  that  authority  with  which  the  decrees  of  the  Baltimore 
provincial  councils  were  stamped  when  those  bodies  legislated 
for  the  entire  American  Church.  This  circumstance  caused  the 
American  prelates  to  enter  into  a  quiet  but  earnest  movement 
looking  towards  the  holding  of  National  Councils.  The  result  of 
the  movement  was  that  a  summons  was  issued  to  all  the  bishops 
of  the  United  States  to  meet  in  the  Cathedral  Church  of  the 
city  of  Baltimore  on  the  9tli  of  May,  1852,  for  the  discussion 
of  questions  aifecting  tho  interests  of  the  Church  in  this  country. 

No  such  gathering  had  been  before  witnessed  in  the  history 
of  the  American  Church.  Among  its  attendants  were  six  arch- 
bishops and  twenty-six  bishops,  all  of  whom  were  presided  over 
by  the  Most  Rev.  Francis  Patrick  Kenrick,  who  had  been  trans- 
ferred from  the  See  of  Philadelphia  only  a  few  years  before.  The 
entire  episcopacy  was  present,  from  the  Archbishop  of  Baltimore, 
to  the  Bishop  of  Monterey,  who  had  to  travel  across  the  continent. 
Austere  Jesuits,  silent  Trappists,  bearded  Franciscans  and  learned 
Benedictines  represented  their  orders,  and  a  dozen  religious  orders 
were  present  in  the  person  of  their  superiors.  The  council  was 
in  session  for  a  number  of  days,  and  the  principal  result  of  its 
labors  was  a  request  to  the  Holy  See  to  establish  eight  new 
bishoprics,  to  raise  San  Francisco  to  an  archiepiscopal  see,  and 
to  constitute  Ui)per  Michigan  a  vicariate  apostolic.  This  increase  of 
the  episcopacy  was  rendered  necessary  by  the  rapid  growth  of  the 
Catholic  population.  Bishops  no  longer  found  themselves  able  to 
attend  to  tlie  requirements  of  a  large  district,  for  the  population 
had  become  concentrated  and  the  trading  posts  of  fifty  years  before 
had  grown  into  promising  cities.  The  calls  for  episcopal  ministra- 
tions   were    so   many    that   the    increase    in    tlie    number    of    bishops 


THE  CATHOLIC  CHURCH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  23 

Avas  fully  justified  by  the  exigencies  of  the  times.  The  pastoral 
letter  of  the  council  was  prepared  by  Archbishop  Kenrick.  It 
abounds  in  good  counsels  and  directions  to  Catholics  for  their 
proper  conduct,  and  has  been  characterized  by  many  as  the  most 
truly  apostolical  document  which  ever  emanated  from  such  a  body. 
The  decrees  of  the  council  were,  with  some  slight  amendments, 
approved  by  the  Roman  Congregations,  and  the  approval  returned 
in  the  following  year  in  an  apostolic  letter  of  the  Holy  Father. 
It  had  been  originally  intended  that  a  National  Council  of  the  bishops 
•of  the  United  States  should  be  held  every  ten  years.  In  1862^  when 
the  time  came  for  the  second  Plenary  Council,  the  country  was 
in  the  midst  of  internecine  strife.  A  civil  war  had  dismembered 
the  nation,  and  it  was  next  to  impossible  for  the  prelates  of  the 
INorth  and  South,  and  the  East  and  the  West,  to  meet  in  National 
Council.  At  the  close  of  the  war,  when  the  embers  of  sectional 
unimosity  had  ceased  to  glow,  preparations  were  begun  for  the 
postponed  assembly.  Martin  John  Spalding  was  then  the  successor 
of  Archbishop  Carroll,  and  a  worthy  one  he  was.  He  was  the 
son  of  one  of  the  oldest  families  of  Maryland,  and  had  been 
baptized  by  the  apostolical  Father  Nerinckx.  After  some  years  of 
study  in  the  seminary  at  Bardstown,  Kentucky,  he  was  sent  to 
Rome  to  study  theology  and  philosophy.  His  public  defence  of 
theses  for  the  doctor's  cap  was  so  able  an  exhibition  as  to  win 
for  *\\Q  young  scholastic  the  encomiums  of  all  who  were  present 
at  his  examination.  Made  coadjutor  to  the  Bishop  of  Louisville 
in  1848,  he  succeeded  the  venerable  Bishop  Flaget  on  that  prelate's 
death  in  1850.  On  the  death  of  the  Archbishop  of  Baltimore  iu 
1864,  he  was  elevated  by  Papal  rescript  to  the  most  dignified 
position  in  the  American  Church.  This  was  the  man  who  was 
•commissioned  Apostolic  Delegate  to  the  second  Plenary  Council  held 
in  1866.  That  event  exceeded  the  first  council  in  magnificence, 
as  much  as  the  first  council  had  been  in  advance  of  any  relig- 
ious event  known  before  in  this  continent.  In  the  sunshine  of 
that  October  morning  on  which  the  council  opened,  six  archbishops, 
thirty-seven  bishops,  three  mitred  abbots,  and  the  representatives 
of  thirteen  religious  bodies,  followed  by  upwards  of  one  hundred 
theologians,  moved  reverentially  through  the  crowds  which  lined 
the  streets  of  Baltimore,  from  the  archiepiscopal  residence  to  tlie 
metropolitan    church.     No    such    sight    had    been  witnesssed  on    earth 


24  THE  THIRD   PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

since  the  Council  of  Trent.  Those  who  knew  not  Catholic  unity 
were  astonished  that  such  an  event  could  take  place  in  a  country 
which  had  been  divided  by  civil  war  only  a  few  months  before. 
They  could  not  understand  how,  after  a  strife  which  had  dismem- 
bered the  most  powerful  of  the  sects,  the  prayer  of  the  Northern 
priest  could  be  wafted  to  heaven  on  a  cloud  of  incense  with  the 
petition  of  his  Southern  brother.  They  knew  naught  of  what 
Father  Ryan,  h\  his  address  at  the  council,  called  "that  faith 
in  one  Holy,  Catholic  and  Apostolical  Church  which  for  fifteen 
centuries,  from  the  Council  of  Nice  to  the  second  Council  of 
Baltimore,  has  expressed  the  faith  of  her  children."  The  solemn 
sessions  of  the  council  were  conducted  on  a  scale  of  the  most 
solemn  magnificence,  while  at  the  private  sessions  the  questions 
engrossing  the  attention  of  the  prelates  are  said  to  have  been 
discussed  with  unequalled  intelligence  and  judgment.  It  was  not 
long  until  the  decrees  of  tlie  council,  to  which  Cardinal  Cullen 
alluded  as  a  mine  of  theological  learning,  received  their  binding 
force  from  Rome,  and  at  the  Vatican  Council  of  1869,  they  were 
referred  to  as  monuments  to  the  correct  judgment  and  thorough 
learning  of  those  who  took  part  in  their  formulation.  They  are 
unique  in  ecclesiastical  legislation,  and  in  all  cases  exhibit  a 
desire  on  the  part  of  the  legislators  to  conform  as  far  as  possible 
\vith    the    usage    of  the    Church    on    all    points. 

IV. 

In  our  opening  lines  the  assertion  was  ventured  that  the  his- 
tory of  the  Catholic  Church  in  the  United  States  would  not  be 
found  to  be  unmixed  with  sorrow  and  persecution.  Up  to  this 
point  only  the  pleasing  phases  of  that  history  have  been  dwelt 
upon.  The  outlines  of  the  picture  have  been  drawo,  and  the 
coloring  laid  in  perhaps  imperfectly.  The  toning  now  remains  to 
be  added, — the  shadows  are  yet  to  be  filled  irr,  that  the  picture 
may    form    a    true    and    a  just    whole. 

As  far  back  as  1830,  a  peculiar  class  of  French  and  German. 
refugees  came  to  the  liospitable  shores  of  America.  They  brought 
with  them  little  that  was  good  and  mucli  tliat  was  vicious.  Ex- 
pelled from  their  native  lands  for  their  connection  with  secret 
societies   which   threatened    the    existence    of    the    government,    they 


THE  CATHOLIC  CHURCH  IN  THE   UNITED  STATES.  25 

sought  to  re-establish  their  infamous  associations  in  this  country. 
They  were,  in  a  great  measure,  successful.  Their  combinations 
were  ostensibly  directed  against  citizens  of  foreign  birth,  but  were 
in  reality  meant  as  a  persecution  to  the  American  arm  of  the 
Catholic  Church.  An  intense  popular  feeling  against  Catholics 
was  Avorked  up,  and  unjustly.  In  spite  of  the  fact  that  Catholics 
had  shed  their  blood  as  freely  in  the  days  of  the  Revolution  as 
their  Protestant  fellow-citizens,  in  spite  of  their  hitherto  unques- 
tioned patriotism,  in  spite  of  their  earnest  protestations  of  thorough 
and  uncompromising  loyalty,  an  influential  party  became  embued 
with  the  idea  that  they  owed  obedience  to  the  Pope  of  Rome, 
who  could  be  looked  upon  in  no  other  light  than  as  a  foreign 
potentate.  The  party  became  known  and  flourished  as  the  "Ameri- 
can," and  later  as  the  "  Know-Xothing "  party.  The  embers  of 
the  excitement  smouldered  with  an  occasional  outburst  such  as  that 
which  led  to  the  destruction  by  incendiaries  of  the  Convent  of 
Mount  St.  Benedict,  at  Charlestown,  Mass.,  Avhcn  scores  of  young 
ladies  escaped  only  at  the  peril  of  their  lives.  In  1852  the  flames 
broke  out  afresh.  The  number  of  the  French  and  German  refu- 
gees had  already  been  augmented  by  the  arrival  of  a  numerous 
band  of  Italian  anarchists  whom  fear  of  the  law's  strong  arm  had 
driven  from  Italy.  They  re-formed  their  societies  of  Carbonari  in 
America,  and  used  all  possible  means  to  excite  the  passions  of 
the  American  people  against  the  Church.  An  opportune  occasion 
for  an  exhibition  of  malevolence  was  soon  presented.  Monsignor 
Bedini,  the  Pope's  nuncio  to  Brazil,  had  been  commissioned  by 
the  venerable  Pius  IX  to  visit  the  United  States  and  to  person- 
ally convey  to  President  Pierce  and  his  Cabinet  expressions 
of  the  Pope's  warmest  regard  for  the  Executive  and  the  nation 
over  Avhich  he  ruled.  The  visit  of  the  Pope's  nuncio  was  the 
red  rag  to  the  infuriated  Italians,  who  had  scarcely  ceased  con- 
spiring against  the  nuncio's  master  within  the  very  walls  of  his 
own  city.  The  revolutionary  papers  attacked  and  villified  the  vis- 
itor, and  at  Cincinnati  his  life  was  threatened  by  a  mob.  Ga- 
vazzi  and  his  German  confreres  preached  death  to  the  priest,  and 
it  was  only  by  cutting  short  his  intended  stay  in  the  United 
States,  that  the  monsignor  escaped  with  his  life.  But  the  hissing 
of  the  serpents  which  had  been  warmed  at  the  American  breast 
had    their    effect.     The    doctrine    was    heralded    to    the    nation    that 


26  TEE  THIRD  PLEN'ARY  COUNCIL. 

America  was  for  Americans,  and  that  foreigners,  and  especially 
Catholic  foreigners,  were  engaged  in  treasonable  plotting  against  the 
existence  of  the  government.  The  whole  country  became  inflamed. 
A  secret  society  having  as  its  end  the  extinction  of  tlie  Catholic 
Church  in  America  was  formed,  and  its  members  were  bound  by 
oaths  deep  and  darlc.  The  party  proscribed  those  who  did  not  be- 
long to  it,  and  its  members  regarded  as  an  enemy  every  inan  who 
coukl  not  give  the  password  known  only  to  the  initiated.  Brilliant 
intellects  were  fettered  by  the  chains  of  prejudice,  and  they  suc- 
cumbed to  the  malign  influence.  The  wikl  fanaticism  practiced 
and  ])reached  defies  the  descriptive  powers  of  human  pen.  No 
one  but  its  victims  could  tell  of  its  malevolence,  and  in  a 
number  of  cases  their  tongues  were  hushed  in  death.  To  use 
the  words  of  one  who  took  part  in  the  struggle,  "  Know-Nothing- 
ism  was  something  worse  than  civil  war ;  it  was  a  struggle  into 
which  all  the  worst  elements  of  politics  and  religion  entered."  It 
denounced  and  insulted  every  dignitary  of  the  Catholic  Church, 
from  the  first  Pope  of  Rome  to  the  humblest  acolyte  who  served 
Mass   in   the   church   of  the   rudest   hamlet. 

The  campaign  of  1855  was  conducted  in  several  States  M'ith  great 
acrimony.  In  Louisville,  Kentucky,  in  Ellsworth,  Maine,  and  in 
several  other  places,  the  culmination  was  reached  in  outrages  on 
Catholics.  The  facts  are  well  known  to  students  of  American  his- 
tory, who  have  blushed  at  the  dishonor  cast  upon  our  country's 
fame  and  the  unworthy  acts  done  in  the  name  of  liberty.  But 
in  the  year  1859,  Virginia  dealt  the  first  blow  to  the  supremacy 
of  the  "  American "  party  by  prostrating  it  in  that  State,  and  their 
power  began  to  wane.  Their  purposes  -were  no  longer  occult ; 
their  designs  were  no  longer  hidden.  By  the  beginning  of  the  year 
1860  they  had  returned  to  the  nothingness  from  which  they  had 
sprung. 

But  Know-Nothingism  is  not  the  only  evil  with  which  the  Catholic 
Church  has  had  to  contend  in  the  United  States.  For  thirty  years 
and  more  the  Catholic  population  of  this  country  has  been  forced  to 
pay  tribute  to  a  system  of  godless  education  of  which  not  one  can 
conscientiously  take  advantage.  The  Catholic  protests  against  paying 
for  the  education  of  other  than  their  own  children  were  made  in 
the  earliest  days  of  the  Know-Nothing  era,  and  were  hurled  back  as 
arguments    in    fiivor    of  the    enmity  of  Catholics    to  free  institutions. 


THE  CATHOLIG  CHURCH  IN  THE   UNITED  STATES.  27 

But  Know-Nothingism  has  passed  away,  and  the  school  question 
still  remains  in  all  its  glaring  injustice.  Millions  of  money  are 
iinnually  taken  from  Catholics  for  the  support  of  schools  in  which 
they  have  no  interest.  The  Catholic  considers  it  unfair  to  tax 
him  for  the  support  of  schools  from  which  all  ideas  of  religion 
are  excluded,  nor  can  he  accept  those  in  which  a  false  religion 
is  taught ;  for  between  godlessness  and  error  the  choice  is  only 
slightly  in  favor  of  the  latter.  The  fight  has  been  an  earnest  one 
on  both  sides.  It  has  elicited  and  is  to-day  drawing  forth  the 
most  solid  arguments  in  favor  of  the  Catholic  doctrine.  Some  day 
the    quarrel    will    be    ended,  some    day  justice   will  be    done. 


"We  _  have  seen,  briefly,  the  history  of  the  Church  up  to  the 
■close  of  the  second  Plenary  Council.  AYe  have  viewed  its  strug- 
gles and  its  successes,  and  have  alluded  to  the  persecution  through 
which  its  children  have  had  to  pass.  But  since  the  last  Plenary 
Council  great  changes  have  been  effected  and  great  advances  made. 
The  body  spiritual  has  increased  until  the  Catholic  Church  in 
the  United  States  numbers  seven  millions  of  adherents.  The 
favor  of  the  Holy  See  has  been  shown  by  the  appointment  of 
an  American  cardinal.  The  growth  of  the  Church  has  been 
■exemplified  by  the  erection  of  stately  cathedrals  and  magnificent 
temples.  Peace  and  war,  love  and  enmity,  prosperity  and  hard- 
ship have  all  caused  her  truths  to  become  known  and  her 
•counsels  to  be  followed.  Her  relations  with  the  republic  have  ever 
been  of  the  most  amicable  character.  The  Church  which  built  up 
and  sustained  San  Marino,  Andorra,  Venice  and  a  host  of  Old 
World  republics  could  have  no  differences  with  a  government  more 
perfect  than  any  of  these  had  been.  Her  priests  have  marched 
and  fasted,  her  sons  have  shed  their  blood  on  the  battle-field,  her 
daughters  have  carried  solace  and  comfort  to  wounded  bodies  and 
lacerated  hearts,  with  as  much  if  not  more  devotion  than  have 
their  fellow-citizens  of  other  sects.  And  with  the  beginning  of  this 
third  Plenary  Council  the  American  Church  stands  ready  for  a 
new  era  of  activity,  clad  in  a  strongei  mail  of  faith  than  ever 
before,  with  a  brighter  buckler  of  hope,  with  a  more  perfect  shield 
of  charity. 

Si  50" 


28  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

But  could  no  other  Church  have  done  this  ?  "  O  unconquerable 
Church  of  Rome !  Church  of  all  lands  and  all  races,  of  all  centu- 
ries and  all  seasons,  with  the  same  unvarying  faith,  the  same  priestr 
hood,  the  same  sacrifice,  the  same  sacraments  for  the  king  and  the 
peasant,  the  most  learned  philosopher  and  the  most  unlettered  of 
men,  for  the  Croesus  and  the  Lazarus ;  what  Church  but  thou  could 
have  a  mission  for  this  land  of  ours,  where  Providence  has  gath- 
ered men  of  every  race  and  tongue,  and  shown  the  very  help- 
lessness of  schism  and  error  by  their  utter  incapacity  to  mould 
men  into  one  homogeneous  Christian  body,  instinct  with  faith,  hope, 
and  'life  that  is  in  charity?  This  dost  thou  accomplish,  O  Catholic 
Church  of  America,  and   it   is    wonderful  in    our    eyes."' 

'  John  G.  Shea,  American  Catholic  Qjuarterly  Review,  vol.  ix,  p.  481. 


Tlie  Cathedral,  Baltimore. 


THE  COUNCILS  OF  BALTIMORE/ 


BY    HUGH    P.    McELROKE. 


I. 

FEW  and  scattered  were  the  Catholics  of  the  republic  in  the 
year  1791.  The  most  of  them  perhaps  were  in  the  Diocese 
of  Baltimore.  It  was  therefore  only  natural  that  the  Right  Rev. 
John  Carroll,  its  first  Bishop,  should  have  had  the  honor  of  pre- 
siding over  the  first  ecclesiastical  tribunal  which  adopted  regulations 
for  the  Church  in  the  United  States ;  for  the  Province  of  Balti- 
more included  at  that  time  all  the  broad  thousands  of  miles  which 
are  now  divided  into   several  provinces   and  many  dioceses. 

Accordingly,  shortly  after  his  appointment  to  the  see,  by  epis- 
copal summons,  dated  October  27,  1791,  the  Bishop  of  Baltimore 
called  together  his  ecclesiastical  dependents,  and  the  synod  met  on 
November  7.  It  is  curious  to  note  at  this  day  how  small  was 
the  body  assembled  to  legislate  for  Avhat  has  developed  into  the 
mighty  Church  of  America.  The  record  contains  the  following 
names,  besides  that  of  Bishop  Carroll :  Very  Rev.  James  Pellentz, 
Vicar-General ;  Revs.  James  Frambach,  Robert  Mollineux,  Francis 
A.  Fleming,  Francis  C.  Nagot,  John  Ashton,  Henry  Pile,  Leonard 
Neale,  Charles  Sewall,  Sylvester  Boarman,  William  Filing,  James 
Vanhuftel,  Robert  Phmkett,  Stanislaus  Cerfoumont,  Francis  Beeston, 
Laurence  Gressel,  Joseph  Eden,  Louis  C.  Delavau,  John  Tessier 
and   Anthony    Garnier. 

The  legislation  of  the  synod,  which  was  apparently  not  sent  to 
Rome  for  approval  (at  least  there  is  no  record  of  the  fact),  was 
highly  approved  by  the  first  Provincial  Council.  Bishop  Carroll 
was  indeed  worthy  of  all  praise  for  the  labor  he  bestowed  upon 
the  work,  he  taking  the  initiative  in,  if  not  indeed  originating, 
all   the   decrees    that   were    passed.     Session    first    was    occupied    by 

1  Revised  froin  articles  in  The  Catholic  Mirror. 

(29) 


30  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

religious  ceremonies,  but  the  evening  session  of  the  day  on  which 
the  synod  assembled  regulated  the  conditions  of  the  Sacraments  of 
Baptism  and  Confirmation.  The  whole  of  the  next  day  was  con- 
sumed in  completing  the  decree  on  the  Eucharist.  Penance,  ex- 
treme unction  and  matrimony  were  dealt  with  on  the  9th.  But 
the  chiefest  work  was  done  on  November  10,  the  fourth  and  last 
day  of  the  synod.  It  was  mostly  devoted  to  issuing  rules  for 
the  clergy  to  observe  in  the  performance  of  their  functions.  The 
last  decree  of  the  little  synod,  the  results  of  whose  efforts  were 
immediately  felt,  bore  on  the  Paschal  Communion,  reinforcing  the 
decree,  "Omnis  utriusque  sexus,"  of  the  Lateran  Council.  Finally 
the  bishop  announced  that  Eev.  John  Ashton  had  been  designated 
his  coadjutor,  and  then,  after  a  "  Te  Deum "  was  sung,  the  synod 
adjourned. 

AVith  not  less  approval  did  the  Provincial  Council  of  1829  men- 
tion the  articles  of  ecclesiastical  discipline  put  forth  by  the  then 
Archbishop  Carroll,  of  Baltimore,  in  conjunction  with  the  coadjutor 
bishop  and  the  Bishops  of  Philadelphia,  Boston,  and  Bardstown, 
Kentucky.  The  first  article  bears  upon  priests  going  from  one 
diocese  to  another;  the  second  on  .regulations  for  the  secular  and 
regular  clergy ;  the  third  on  the  Scriptures,  approving  the  Douay 
Bible ;  the  fourth  on  parochial  registers ;  the  fifth  on  baptism ; 
the  sixth  on  sponsers ;  the  seventh  on  the  material  for  celebrating 
Mass ;  the  eighth  on  matrimony,  ordering  the  ceremony  to  be 
performed  in  churches  where  possible ;  the  ninth  directs  pastors 
to  warn  their  flocks  against  indulging  in  going  to  theatres  or  other 
public  entertainments  of  a  bad  character,  and  reading  immoral 
fables  called  novels — especially  prohibiting  the  perusal  of  works 
which  attack    our    holy  religion. 

The  tenth  article  should  be  remarked  upon  at  some  length. 
The  ridiculous  charge  has  been  frequently  made  that  the  Church 
has  changed  her  attitude  since  the  revolution  of  1848  in  regard 
to  secret  societies  and  their  great  prototype,  Freemasonry.  There 
are  grounds  for  the  charge  to  rest  upon,  astonishing  as  they  may 
seem  to  Catholics.  A  passage  from  one  of  Joseph  de  Maistre's  letters 
from  St.  Petersburg  intimating  that  the  operations  of  the  Illuminati 
(the  Nihilists  of  those  days)  were  not  unfavorable  to  the  spread  of 
the  Catholic  Church  in  Russia,  has  been  garbled  and  extensively 
quoted   in    Protestant    journals.     Maistre  never    pjit    the    matter    in. 


THE  COUNCILS  OF  BALTIMORE.  31 

the  way  the  Church's  enemies  make  it  appear  that  he  did,  but 
even  if  he  did  we  are  not  disposed  to  regard  him  as  an  authori- 
tative Catholic  writer.  However,  the  tenth  article  of  the  discipli- 
nary rules  promulgated  by  INIost  Rev.  John  Carroll,  Archbishop 
of  Baltimore,  and  his  suffragan  bishops,  in  1810,  just  about  the 
period  that  Maistre  wrote,  effectually  disposes  of  this  calumny.  In 
it  they  enjoin  upon  priests  not  to  administer  the  Sacraments  of 
the  Church  to  those  who  belonged  to  Freemasonry,  no  matter  in 
what  shape  they  might  put  their  connection  with  the  condemned 
society. 

These  are  the  beginnings  of  ecclesiastical  legislation  in  the  United 
States.  They  are  adduced  first,  in  order  to  contrast  how  few  were 
those  ecclesiastics  who  took  part  compared  to  the  host  which 
attended  the  third  Plenary  Council ;  and  secondly,  to  show  how 
the  legislation  of  the  Church  of  this  country,  even  as  far  back 
as  1791  and  1810,  when  Catholics  were  weak  in  numbers  and 
she  was  unknown  and  despised,  was  pitched  in  the  high  and 
independent  tone  and  firm  attitude  as  to  the  verities  of  religion 
which  has  ever  since  marked  the  American  Church  and  gained  it 
admiration  throughout  the  world. 

II. 

Nineteen  years  passed  along  after  the  promulgation  of  the  dis- 
ciplinary rules  by  Archbishop  Carroll  'and  his  suffragans  in  1810 
before  it  was  thought  necessary  to  call  together  the  growing  epis- 
copate of  America  to  consult  upon  our  Church  affairs.  The  popu- 
lation had  been  increasing  slowly  but  steadily,  and  to  the  list  of 
bishops,  which,  on  the  former  occasion,  included  only  three  besides 
the  coadjutor  of  the  archbishop,  had  been  added  a  man  of  singular 
energy  of  character  and  a  scope  of  genius  which  forecast  the  bril- 
liant future  of  the  American  Church — Right  Rev.  John  England, 
who  Avas  consecrated  Bishop  of  Charleston  (his  diocese  then  in- 
cluding North  and  South  Carolina  and  Georgia)  in  1820.  It  was 
chiefly  through  his  exertions  that  the  first  Provincial  Council, 
which  was  really  National,  since  it  included  the  United  States  so 
far  as  they  Avere  mapped  out  into  diocesan  lines,  was  convened. 
In  constant  communication  M'ith  Rome,  the  trusted  adviser  of  the 
Propaganda,    and     the     regular     correspondent    of    the     Propagation 


32  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

Society,  of  Lyons,  France,  he  was  naturally  looked  upon,  in  effect, 
as  the  channel  of  connection  between  the  centre  of  religion  and 
the  promising  republic  of  the  western  hemisphere. 

Accordingly,  by  letters  issued  in  December,  1828,  Most  Rev. 
James  Whitfield,  who  had  been  consecrated  Archbishop  of  Baltimore, 
May  25,  1828,  as  the  successor  of  Archbishop  Marechal,  summoned 
the  following  prelates  to  the  first  Provincial  Council :  .  Right  Rev. 
Benedict  J.  Flagct,  Bishop  of  Bardstown,  Kentucky,  consecrated 
l^ovember  4,  1810;  Riglit  Rev.  .John  England,  Bishop  of  Charleston, 
South  Carolina,  consecrated  September  21,  1820;  Right  Rev. 
Edward  Fenwick,  Bishop  of  Cincinnati,  consecrated  January  13, 
1822;  Right  Rev.  Joseph  Rosati,  Bishop  of  St.  Louis,  consecrated 
March  2o,  1804 ;  Right  Rev.  Benedict  Fenwick,  Bishop  of  Boston, 
consecrated  November  1,  1825;  Very  Rev.  William  Matthews, 
"Vicar  Apostolic  and  Administrator  of  Philadelphia,  consecrated  Feb- 
ruary 26,  1828.  Among  those  who  were  designated  as  assistant 
theologians  may  be  mentioned  the  choice  of  the  Bishop  of  Bards- 
town, Rev.  Francis  Patrick  Kenrick,  who  was  also  one  of  the 
secretaries  of  the  Council,  and  the  choice  of  Bishop  England,  Rev. 
Simon  Gabriel  Brute — both  names  which,  later  on,  shone  high  in 
the  galaxy  of  the  American  episcopate — the  former  destined  to 
preside    over   our    first    Plenary    Conncil. 

On  the  fourth  day  of  October  the  council  held  its  first  session. 
That  and  the  following  four  days  were  devoted  to  the  reading  oi 
Papal  documents,  and  to  the  unfolding  of  the  Roman  Church's 
views  in  regard  to  America  by  Bishop  England.  Ten  days  were 
then  spent  in  a  careful  consideration  of  disciplinary  rules,  which 
are  embodied  in  the  "Concilia  Provincialia  Baltimori,"  1851.  They 
include  not  only  an  amplification  of  Archbishop  Carroll's  wise 
regulations,  but  also  contain  additions  chiefly  from  Bishop  England, 
the  fruit  of  extended  and  most  active  observation.  The  number  of 
these  decrees  is  thirty-eight.  They  embrace  nearly  the  whole  field  of 
Catholic  discipline,  and  not  only  the  prompt  approval  of  them  by 
the  Roman  Congregations,  but  also  the  endorsement  and  continua- 
tion of  them  by  subsequent  councils  of  American  prelates,  show 
how  well  they  were  framed  and  how  singularly  fortunate  they  were 
in    meeting    the    anticipated    needs    of  succeeding    times. 

One  of  the  evils  whicli  Bishop  England  early  recognized  and 
vigorously    worked    against     was     the     practical    uuaccouutability    of 


THE  COUNCILS  OF  BALTIMORE.  33 

priest  to  bishop,  and  in  turn  of  layman  to  priest.  Tilings  were 
generally  in  a  loose  state,  many  unworthy  priests  who  had  been 
sent  out  of  Europe  taking  up  their  abode  in  various  places,  either 
without  the  authorization  of  the  spiritual  rulers  or  else  on  false 
pretences,  and  thus  creating  scandal  among  the  community  at  large. 
There  were  few  native  priests ;  most  of  them  came  from  foreign 
parts;  and  in  this  another  drawback  lay.  A  large  part  of  them 
were  the  French  refugees  from  the  terrors  of  the  French  Revolu- 
tion. Good  and  holy  men  they  were,  and  their  exertions  were 
recognized  as  bearing  the  best  fruits.  But  they  were  believers  in 
monarchy ;  and  their  horror  of  republicanism  was  increased  by  the 
sad  hardships  which  the  unworthy  French  republicans  had  inflicted 
upon  themselves  and  by  the  memory  of  the  cruel  scenes  which 
they  had  witnessed.  But  slightly  acquainted  with  our  language, 
the  genius  of  our  institutions  and  the  temper  of  our  people,  they 
often  gave  vent  to  sayings  that  were  magnified  and  distorted  by 
the  enemies  of  the  Cliurch,  and  this  had  a  great  deal  to  do  with 
the  preservation  of  England's  Puritan  Tradition  in  this  country. 
Accordingly  we  find  this  our  first  Provincial  Council  occupied 
largely  with  the  subjects  indicated. 

After  making  several  regulations  in  regard  to  the  administration 
of  the  Sacraments,  another  matter  is  touched  upon.  It  has  been 
charged  that  the  Church's  policy  lias  greatly  changed  on  the  sub- 
ject of  the  danger  to  Catholic  youth  from  education  in  mixed 
schools.  Certainly  the  evil  is  aggravated  now  by  the  vast  expan- 
sion of  the  system,  but  as  far  back  as  1829  we  see  no  difference 
in  the  tone  of  the  prelates — that  is,  measured  by  the  lesser  danger 
at  that  day.  The  thirty-third,  thirty-fourth  and  thirty-fifth  decrees 
deal  with  the  matter  in  no  honied  tones.  "Wherever  parochial 
schools  are  possible,  they  are  ordered  to  be  opened,  and  Sunday- 
schools  are  insisted  upon  as  an  absolute  necessity ;  when  a  school 
is  found  in  which  Catholic  doctrines  or  moral  principles  are  attacked, 
it  is  the  duty  of  the  pastor  in  its  neighborhood  to  prohibit  attend- 
ance at  it  by  the  children  of  his   flock. 

In  the  beginning  of  the  following  year  these  decrees  were  re- 
turned as  approved  by  the  Propaganda  Congregation  and  the  Pope. 
A  most  favorable  impression  was  made  upon  the  Church  at  large. 


34  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

III. 

It  was  only  four  years  after  the  first  Provincial  Council  that 
a  pressing  need  was  felt  for  a  new  one.  Accordingly,  in  the 
last  days  of  October,  1833,  in  obedience  to  the  summons  issued 
some  months  before,  the  prelates  of  the  United  States  and  their 
theologians  assembled  once  more  in  the  metropolitan  city  to  con- 
sult   on    the    affairs    of  the    Church. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  features  in  the  history  of  the  Coun- 
cils of  Baltimore  is  the  notation  of  the  names  of  ecclesiastics  and 
of  their  positions,  who  afterwards  rose  to  high  places  in  the 
Church.  To  use  a  military  expression,  the  illustrious  prelates, 
who  have  gained  a  place  in  the  world-wide  history  of  the  uni- 
versal Church,  did  not  reach  their  stations  by  the  mere  force  of 
precedence ;  they  won  their  spurs  by  hard  work.  In  addition  to 
those  who  attended  the  last  council  we  find :  Right  Rev.  John 
Dubois,  Bishop  of  New  York,  consecrated  on  the  29th  of  Octo- 
ber, 1826;  Right  Rev.  Michael  Portier,  Bishop  of  Mobile,  con- 
secrated November  5,  1826  ;  both  of  whom  failed  to  attend  the 
former  council  because  of  the  delay  in  their  return  to  this  country 
from  Rome ;  Right  Rev.  Francis  Patrick  Kenrick,  Bishop  of 
Arathensia  and  coadjutor  of  the  Bishop  of  Philadelphia,  consecrated 
June  6,  1830 ;  Right  Rev.  Frederick  Rese,  Bishop  of  Detroit, 
consecrated  October  6,  1833 ;  Right  Rev.  John  B.  Purcell,  Bishop 
of  Cincinnati,  consecrated  October  13,  1833 ;  the  last  being  the 
successor  of  Right  Rev.  Edward  Fenwick,  then  dead.  Among  the 
assistant  theologians  may  be  mentioned  several  names  "which  are 
still  familiar  to  our  ears :  Revs.  Peter  Fredet,  William  McSherry,. 
Samuel  Eccleston,  Andrew  Byrne  (the  first  student  in  the  seminary 
established  by  Bishop  England  in  Charleston),  John  Hughes  and 
Simon    Brute. 

The  most  important  business  before  this  small  but  illustrious 
assembly  was  the  erection  of  new  dioceses  and  settling  the  bound- 
aries of  the  old.  The  Pope,  Gregory  XVI,  by  a  bull  issued  in 
the  July  of  the  following  year,  approved  the  decrees  on  these 
subjects.  For  instance,  the  Diocese  of  Boston,  wliich  is  now  a 
flourishing  province  with  many  suffragan  sees,  included  the  six 
States  of  New  England — "that  is"  says  the  bull,  "Massachusetts,, 
Maine,   New    Hampshire,    Rhode   Island,    Connecticut  and  Vermont." 


THE  COUNCILS  OF  BALTIMORE.  35 

The  Diocese  of  New  York  comprised  not  only  tlie  whole  of  that 
Empire  State,  but  also  the  counties  of  Sussex,  Bergen,  Morris, 
Essex,  Somerset,  Middlesex  and  Monmouth  in  New  Jersey.  Vir- 
ginia and  West  Virginia  were  subject  to  the  Archbishop  of  Balti- 
more. The  Diocese  of  Philadelphia  consisted  of  the  whole  State 
of  Pennsylvania,  of  Delaware,  and  seven  counties  in  New  Jersey. 
It  needs  only  the  mention  of  these  facts  to  call  attention  to  tlie 
contrast  now  afforded  by  the  numerous  compact  sees  which  cover 
all    this    territory. 

Among  the  other  notable  decrees  passed  and  approved  at  Rome 
are  t\vo  placing  the  Indian  and  Negro  missions  under  the  special 
charge  of  the  Society  of  Jesus.  Another  decree  called  for  a  cor- 
rect edition  of  the  Rituale  Romanum,  and  the  last  fixed  the  date 
for  the  opening  of  the  next  council — the  third  Sunday  after 
Easter  in  the  year  1837.  The  second  Provincial  Council  adjourned 
October    27,    1833. 

IV. 

There  was  no  increase  in  the  number  of  prelates  who  attended 
the  third  council.  Its  decrees,  as  were  those  of  the  preceding 
Council,  are  signed  by  ten  names.  Archbishop  Whitfield  had  passed 
to  his  reward,  and  Archbishop  Eccleston  had  succeeded,  and  he 
presided  over  the  assemblage.  Dr.  C.  I.  White,  one  of  America's 
most  learned  scholars,  was  the  associate  secretary  of  the  council, 
and    a    great   deal    of  its    labor    fell    upon    him. 

All  the  sessions  of  tliis  council  were  short,  and  the  time  of 
it  extended  only  from  the  17th  to  the  22d  of  April,  inclusive. 
The  decrees  that  it  passed  are  printed  upon  three  pages,  and  are 
confined  in  their  scope  to  clerical  and  liturgical  regulations.  The 
Roman  Ritual  of  the  Sacred  Congregation  recommended  by  Pope 
Gregory  XVI  at  their  request  for  an  authoritative  version  was 
adopted. 

In  1836  Bishop  England,  on  being  invited  to  do  so,  addressed 
a  series  of  letters  to  the  Propagation  Society  of  Lyons,  which  had 
been  most  generous  in  its  contributions  to  the  cause  in  America, 
on  the  progress  and  the  state  of  the  Church  in  this  country.  He 
estimated  the  Catholic  population  at  1,500,000,  after  having  con- 
sulted all  the  authorities  within  his  reach  and  having  employed 
the    most    careful    inquiry.     According   to    the    calculations    which    he 


36  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

adduces  there  should  have  been  at  least  3,900,000  Catholics  in  the 
United  States — a  loss  of  2,400,000.  Among  the  various  causes 
which  he  assigned  for  this  defection  there  are  prominently  placed 
by  him — unworthy  priests,  foreign  priests,  who  did  not  understand 
the  nature  of  our  people,  and  a  scarcity  even  of  the  material  that 
could  bo  got.  In  the  first  class  were  many  who  simply  disgraced  the 
name  and  created  the  greatest  scandals ;  others,  wlio,  though  honest 
enough,  lacked  that  polish  and  refinement  which  enable  one  to  take 
a  place  in  society ;  for  the  strange  theory  prevailed  in  Europe  that 
Americans  were  rude  and  uncultured,  perhaps  lived  in  log  huts 
and  dressed  in  homespun,  and  that  any  kind  of  priests  would  do 
for  tliem ;  the  consequence  of  which  opinion  was  that  many  of  the 
priests  at  that  time  not  only  repelled  non-Catholics,  but  did  much 
by  their  manners  to  drive  Catholics  from  the  Church.  Many  of 
the  foreign  priests  were  French,  tlie  objections  to  whom  have  been 
stated.  In  order  to  meet  these  wants  measures  were  adopted  in 
this  council  looking  to  a  provision  of  means  for  educating  native 
priests ;  and  the  beginnings  made  then  have  developed,  under  the 
watchful  care  of  the  zealous  and  vigilant  succession  of  prelates 
who  have  ruled  the  American  Church,  until  to-day  we  see  in 
America  a  band  of  priests  whom  it  would  be  hard  to  match  in 
any  country  of  the  world. 

Some  of  the  Papal  rescripts  approving  the  council's  decrees  were 
not  received  until  1841,  after  the  next  council  was  held. 

Y. 

It  is  now  seemed  a  settled  matter  that  councils  should  be 
held  every  three  years.  Accordingly,  in  1840,  1843,  1846  and 
1849  four  councils  followed  'the  others  so  happily  and  successfully 
planned  by  the  great  brain  of  Bishop  England.  When  the  fifth 
met  he  was  absent  from  the  list  of  prelates — gone  to  that  bourne 
whence  no  traveler  returns.  Archbishop  Eccleston  presided  over 
the    four    councils    now    under    consideration. 

Little  was  done  except  to  confirm  and  strengthen  precedent 
legislation,  and  to  add  such  regulations  as  the  needs  of  the  day 
demanded.  The  steady  increase  in  the  prelates  is,  however,  ob- 
servable. Thirteen  signed  the  decrees  of  the  1840  council,  and  the 
following  ones  bear  the  signatures  of  fifteen  (sixteen  counting 
Bishop    England's    place    filled    by    the    administrator    of    the   diocese, 


THE  COUNCILS  OF  BALTIMORE.  37 

Very  Rev.  R.  S.  Baker),  twenty-three,  and  twenty-five,  respectively. 
Right  Rev.  Francis  Patrick  Kenrick  appears  as  the  Bishop  of 
Philadelphia,  and  Right  Rev.  John  Hughes  as  Bishop  of  New 
York ;  Right  Rev.  John  McCloskey,  Bishop  of  Albany,  and  Right 
Rev.  Martin  Jolin  Spalding,  Bishop  of  Lengonensis  in  ]^)artibu!i — all  of 
them  names  which  require  only  to  be  mentioned  now,  for  they 
are  household  words  throughout  the  United  States.  Among  the 
attendant  theologians  are  also  many  names  since  become  familiar 
throughout  the  land  for  theological  lore  and  ripe  scholarship,  as 
also  for  having  attained  high  ecclesiastical  stations.  Por  instance, 
the  Revs.  Boniface  AVimmer,  Joseph  S.  Alemany,  C.  I.  AVhite, 
J.  P.  Y/ood,  John  Loughlin,  Michael  Heiss,  Bernard  O'Reilly, 
AVilliam  H.  Elder,  C.  L  Pise  and  others — some  of  them  dead, 
some  of  them  living  to-day — but  all  of  them  so  well  known  that 
it  requires  only  the  mention  of  their  names.  Thus,  it  will  be 
seen  that  the  episcopate  was  steadily  gaining,  not  only  in  numbers, 
but  in  the  quality  of  the  material  composing  it ;  and  a  number 
of  wise  theologians  were  growing  up,  ready  to  add  their  lore  to 
its    assembled    deliberations. 

The  decree  issued  in  1810  by  the  then  few  prelates  in  America 
against  secret  societies  has  been  mentioned.  The  seventh  decree  of 
the  fourth  council  repeats  and  reinforces  the  disciplinary  article  of 
Archbishop  Carroll  and  his  suffragans.  Members  of  these  societies 
were  deprived  then  as  now  of  participation  in  the  Sacraments,  and 
pastors  were  urged  to  exhort  the  faithful  not  to  join  them.  This 
Avas  in  1840,  still  a  good  while  before  the  Catholic  Church  is 
said  to  have  changed  her  policy  in  regard  to  secret  societies  and 
under  a  Pope  before  Pius  IX,  who,  the  enemy  alleges,  was  scared 
by  the  revolution  of  1848.  To  Catholics  no  proof  was  needed; 
but  Ave  would  like  to  ask  our  friends  the  enemy  how  they  will 
overcome  the  fact  of  these  decrees,  Avhich  were  duly  approved  at 
Rome    by    Gregory    XVI  ? 

The  other  decrees  of  these  councils  related  chiefly  to  clerical 
regulations,  as,  for  instance,  forbidding  one  clergyman  to  trespass 
upon  the  parish  of  another.  Only  five  decrees  were  passed  by  the 
sixth  council,  and  the  last  one  merely  fixed,  as  usual,  the  date 
<»f  the  following  meeting.  One  tiling,  however,  makes  it  notable. 
Pope  Gregory  XVI  had  died,  and  Pius  IX,  under  whose  foster- 
ing   care    the   rapid    growth    of  the    Church   in  the   succeeding  thirty 


38  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

years  was  witnessed  in  this  country,  had  succeeded  and  for  the 
first  time  addressed  liis  American  followers  through  the  Archbishop 
of  Baltimore.  Even  thus  early,  when  he  had  just  mounted  the 
Papal  throne,  and  although  his  letter  is  very  short,  lie  manifests 
his  love  and  admiration  for  the  vigorous  young  Church  of  the 
West,  destined,  in  his  prophetic  opinion,  to  make  up  for  the  mel- 
ancholy losses  in  Europe.  The  energy  of  our  episcopate,  considering 
the  difficulties  they  had  to  struggle  with  and  the  vast  extent  of 
country  covered  by  their  dioceses,  moves  him  to  wonder,  which 
he  freely  expresses — and,  indeed,  Pius  IX's  favorites  were  always 
the  American  Bishops,  American  Catholics — the  nation  itself.  "  I 
am  more  truly  Pope  in  America  than  in  any  other  country,"  he 
used  to  say.  The  Roman  cardinals  called  Bishop  England,  on 
account  of  his  untiring  industry  and  celerity  of  movement,  the 
"  steam  bishop."  Pius  IX  knew  him  well  before  Charleston's 
great  bishop  died — several  years  anterior  to  the  Pope's  succession 
to  the  throne ;  and  the  tradition  of  him  who  was  the  originator 
of  the  American  councils  and  his  brother  prelates  yet  remained. 
A  new  genci'ation  was  now  at  hand,  but  they  were  worthy  heirs 
of  the  robes  worn  by  those  rugged  heroes,  our  first  bishops,  who 
metaphorically  fought  their  way  into  the  United  States  and  cleared 
the    paths   for    those    that    followed    them. 

Although  the  dogma  of  the  Immaculate  Conception  of  the  Blessed 
Virgin  was  not  defined  by  the  Holy  See  until  five  years  after  the 
holding  of  the  seventh  council,  we  find  recorded  here  a  letter  from 
the  Pope  inculcating  devotion  to  her  in  the  Immaculate  Concep- 
tion; and  the  two  first  decrees  relate  to  this  grand,  glorious  and 
pious  subject.  In  them  the  Catholics  of  America  are  urged  to  pay 
particular  devotion  to  the  Holy  Mother  of  God  in  the  Immacu- 
late Conception,  and  our  country  placad  under  her  special  protec- 
tion. It  is  notable  to  behold  this  unanimous  demand,  as  it  were, 
of  the  ^Vmerican  episcopate  for  the  promulgation  of  the  dogma. 
They,  in  common  with  their  brethren  tlu-oughout  the  Catholic 
world,  asked  that  it  be  made  a  doctrine  of  the  faitli,  and  when 
five  years  had  passed  the  Holy  Father  acceded  to  tlic  wishes  of 
his  chihlren  by  solemnly  promulgating  it.  It  is  an  illustration  of 
how  wise  and  cautious  the  proceedings  of  the  Holy  See  are.  It 
does  not  originate  anything;  it  waits  until  a  question  is  raised, 
and  when  the  universal  voice  is  fi)r  its  ai)|)roval  or  condemnation 
it  speaks,  guided  by  the  counsels  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 


THE  COUNCILS  OF  BALTIMORE.  39 

The  last  decree  of  the  council  fixed  the  date  of  the  first  Plenary 
or  National  Council  for  1850,  but  the  subsequent  delays  necessi- 
tated by  providing  for  the  divisions  of  provinces  and  dioceses,  and 
the  appointments  of  rulers  thereof,  prevented  it  from  assembling 
before  1852. 

VI. 

At  the  conclusion  of  the  seventh  Provincial  Council  (and  it 
must  be  remembered  that  these  councils  were  really  national)  a 
petition  to  the  Holy  Father  was  adopted  asking  the  erection  of 
new  archdioceses,  with  the  reservation  of  primatial  powers  to  the 
metropolitan  See  of  Baltimore.^  The  petition  was  accepted,  and 
the  consequence  was  the  erection  of  six  provinces  out  of  the  single 
original  archdiocese  which  had  for  lialf  a  century  covered  the  whole 
country.  In  these,  various  Provincial  Councils  were  held  to  adopt 
regulations  suitable  to  the  wants  of  their  people.  In  doing  so, 
however,  it  speedily  became  obvious  that  much  confusion  would 
follow  from  the  fact  that  varying  rules  prevailed  in  each  of  the 
provinces.  It  was  necessary  that  some  central  landmark,  as  it  were, 
should  be  set  up  as  a  guide  for  all.  Hence,  having  received 
letters  as  Delegate  Apostolic  from  the  Holy  See,  the  Archbishop 
of  Baltimore  issued  a  call,  November  21,  1851,  to  the  other  arch- 
bisliops  and  their  suffragans,  for  the  first  Plenary  Council  of  the 
United    States  to  assemble  in  the  following  INIay. 

Archbishop  Eccleston,  mIio  had  presided  over  several  of  the 
Provincial  Councils,  had  passed  away,  and  the  Most  Rev.  Francis 
Patrick  Kenrick  occupied  the  primatial  see.  Let  us  note  the 
other  archbishops  and  the  order  in  which  they  are  ranked :  Most 
Eev.  Francis  N.  Blanchet,  Archbishop  of  Oregon ;  Most  Rev.  Peter 
Richard  Kenrick,  Archbishop  of  St.  Louis ;  Most  Rev.  Anthony 
Blanc,  Archbishop  of  New  Orleans ;  Most  Rev.  John  Hughes, 
Archbishop  of  New  York;  and  Most  Rev.  John  B.  Purcell,  Arch- 
bishop of  Cincinnati.  There  were  twenty-three  bishops,  among 
whom  is  notable  the  Right  Rev.  John  McCloskey,  Bishop  of 
Albany — now  our  illustrious  cardinal — and  Right  Rev.  Martin  John 
Spalding,  Bishop    of  Louisville,  afterwards  Archbishop    of  Baltimore. 

The   council   lasted    eleven   days — from    the    10th    to    the    20th   of 

1  Ut  Sedes  Metropolitana  Baltimorensis  Primatus  honore  gaudeat,  cui  Sedes  omnes,  tam 
Metropolitanaj  quam  Episcopales  in  Fojderatis  Americ£E  Septcntrionalis  Statibus  et  Terri- 
torils,  subjaceant. 


40  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

May  inclusive.  There  were  many  weighty  questions  to  be  consid- 
ered, and  the  first  that  came  before  the  body  was  the  lack  of 
uniformity  in  the  provincial  decrees  of  the  preceding  two  or  three 
years.  Accordingly  the  second  decree  bears  upon  this  point  by 
extending  the  decrees  of  the  seven  Provincial  Councils  of  Baltimore 
to  all  the  dioceses  of  the  Federal  Union.  Tliere  were  in  all 
twenty-five  decrees.  The  majority  relate  to  ecclesiastical  discipline, 
such  as  re-adopting  the  Rituale  Roraanum  approved  by  the  first 
Provincial  Council,  fixing  the  periods  during  which  a  bishop  might, 
for  various  reasons,  absent  himself  from  his  diocese,  exhorting 
bishops  to  consult,  when  possible,  aged,  learned  and  experienced 
priests  in  their  dioceses  before  promulgating  rules  and  regulations,  etc. 
Among  the  decrees  may  be  noted  the  following :  The  9th  pro- 
vides tliat  priests  coming  from  Europe  to  settle  in  the  United 
States  should  be  required  to  show  credentials  from  the  bishops  of 
the  dioceses  whence  they  come  in  order  to  obtain  a  station  from 
the  American  bishop  to  whom  they  applied.  The  11th  orders  the 
bans  of  marriage  to  be  published  in  all  the  dioceses  without  fail, 
and  exhorts  the  clergy  not  only  to  be  emphatic  in  doing  so,  but 
to  diligently  seek  out  whether  any  grave  obstacles  exist  in  each 
case.  The  13th  deals  with  the  school  question.  In  it  the  bishops 
in  their  respective  dioceses  are  earnestly  exhorted  to  take  int& 
grave  consideration  the  great  and  increasing  evil  of  youth  growing 
up  ignorant  of  God  and  the  teachings  of  His  Church ;  and,  if 
it  was  possible,  to  establish  a  school  by  the  side  of  every  church. 
The  next  decree  provides  that  eacli  province  should  have  at  least 
one  seminary  for  training  priests  and  supplying  the  thin  ranks  so 
inadequately   filled    by    the   recruits    from    Europe. 

Among  the  acts  of  this  our  first  Plenary  Council  was  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  sodality  to  pray  for  the  conversion  of  non-Catholics. 
A  petition  was  forwarded  to  the  Holy  Father  asking  that  indul- 
gences be  granted  to  the  prayers  offered  up;  to  which  the  late 
glorious  Pope  replied  with  his  accustomed  benignity,  freely  bestow- 
ing upon  them  the  treasures  of  heaven. 

At  the  time  the  council  Avas  held  there  was  in  tliis  country  a 
Catholic  population  of  about  4,000,000.  It  would  be  a  moderate 
estimate  to  say  that  a  much  larger  number  than  tliis  had  been 
lost  to  the  Church.  As  will  be  seen  above  tlie  prelates  recognized 
this  melancholy  fact.       They  speak   of  the    great  and   increasing   evil 


THE  COUNCILS   OF  BALTIMORE.  41 

of  youth    being    allowed    to    grow    up    in    a    godless    state ;    and    they 
devote  a  decree  to  the  subject. 

Between  the  first  and  second  Plenary  Councils  lies  a  long, 
troubled  and  bloody  chapter  of  American  history.  Not  that  the 
quarrels  of  men  can  effect  the  calm  course  of  the  Church,  but 
material  obstacles  necessarily  intervened.  In  the  meantime  there 
were  held  three  truly  Provincial  Councils  in  Baltimore ;  but  the 
design  is  to  treat  only  those  of  national  extent,  and  we  pass  on 
to   the   second   Plenary   Council. 

VII. 

In  coming  to  treat  upon  tne  second  Plenary  Council,  one  feels 
that  we  are  touching  almost  contemporary  history.  It  is  within 
the  recollection  of  thousands  now  living,  and  it  would  be  useless 
to  dwell  upon  it  to  the  extent  that  its  importance  will  demand 
and  will  receive  hereafter.  However,  there  are  some  things  in 
connection  with  it  which  should  be  noticed  here  in  order  to  con- 
trast  it   with   the   former    councils. 

But  before  going  into  any  details  about  it,  let  us  observe  the 
difference  between  the  Catholic  Church,  which  retains  the  spirit 
as  well  as  the  doctrines  of  her  Founder,  Jesus  Christ,  and  the 
false  sects  which  could  only  imitate  the  human  passions  of  their 
earthly  founders.  From  1861  to  1865,  the  United  States  were 
torn  by  one  of  the  fiercest  civil  wars  on  record.  In  that  terrible 
struggle  Catholics  were  not  backward  on  either  side.  They  were 
found  in  the  forefront  of  the  battle  in  the  Federal  and  in  the 
Confederate  armies ;  on  every  field  their  blood  was  freely  poured 
out  for  the  cause  they  had  espoused.  But  while  Catholic  met 
Catholic  hilt  to  hilt  in  defence  of  what  each  side  considered  to 
be  their  country  and  its  rights,  they  were  ready  to  kneel  as 
brothers  in  the  same  Cliurch ;  they  never  dreamed  of  importing 
their  quarrels  into  the  calm  sanctuary  of  the  Lord.  So,  while 
armies  marched  and  the  sword  flashed  up  and  down  the  land,  the 
Church  of  America  remained  one,  undivided,  indivisible.  There 
Avere  a  Presbyterian  Church  North  and  a  Presbyterian  Church 
South;  a  Methodist  Church  North  and  a  INIethodist  Church  South; 
and,  strange  as  it  may  sound,  these  divisions  hated  each  otlier 
even  worse  than  the  sectaries  hated  the  Papists.  "What  more 
decisive   proof    can    be    adduced    to    show    that    the    Church    has    the 


42  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL.     ' 

'  ■  ■■  ,  r  .} 
spirit  of  that  Christ  who  prayed  that  His  followers  might  in 
religion,  be  united  even  as  the  Father  and  He  were  united?  And 
what  more  decisive  proof  can  be  adduced  to  show  the  falsehood 
of  the  jarring  sects,  ready  to  split  in  two  during  those  very  trials 
which  God  sends  upon  the  wicked  earth  to  try  men's  souls? 

Scarcely  had   the    echoes    of  war  died    away  when   the  Most   Rev. 
Martin   John    Spalding,    Archbishop    of    Baltimore,    on    the     19th    of 
March,  18 GO,  issued  a  call,  as  Apostolic  Delegate  of  the  Holy  See,  to 
the    archbishops    and    bishops    of    the    United    States    to    assemble    in 
this  city  for  the  purpose  of  consulting   on  the    affairs  of  the  Church. 
The   date   for    the    council    had    been    fixed    for     1862,    but,    as    the 
letter  says,    it  could  not   then   be    held    on    account    of  the    disturbed 
state    of    the    times.     In   response    to     the     call,    there    met    in    the 
autumn    of    18 66    seven    archbishops,    thirty-seven    bishops,    one    ad- 
ministrator,   one    procurator,    and    two     mitred    abbots.     Among    the 
notable    things  which  we  find  recorded  in  the    names  of  those  taking 
part   in   this    council    are    these :     The    present    Apostolic     Delegate 
and   Archbishop    of  Baltimore,  Most    Rev.  James    Gibbons,    acted    as 
assistant    chancellor    to    the    chancellor.    Rev.    Thomas    Foley;    while 
Father    Corcoran,    the    chief    secretary    of  the    third    Plenary    Council 
just    closed,    was    the    chief    secretary    of    the    second.     The    theolo- 
gians included  such  well-known  names  as  these :     Revs.  J.  L.  Spald- 
ing,  P.  J.  Ryan,    Edward    Fitzgerald,    F.  X.  Weninger,  S.J.,    A.   M. 
Toebbe,  N.  J.  Perche,  Francis   McNierny,  J.  B.  Brouillet,  M.  Marty, 
T.    A.    Becker,    B.    J.    McQuaid,    F.    X.    Leray,    J.    Benoit,    T.    F. 
Hendricken,  D.  Manucy,  T.  Mullen,  A.  S.  Healy,  John  McElroy,  S.J., 
etc.    who    are    known  now    from   Maine  to  Texas  for  their  intellecual 
acquirements    and    the    high    stations     they    occupied     or    occupy    in 
the    Church. 

The  second  point  to  which  we  desire  to  call  particular  atten- 
tion is  the  completeness  of  the  body  of  decrees  passed  by  the 
second  Plenary  Council  as  compared  with  the  precedent  ones. 
They  take  up  a  volume  as  large  as  that  which  includes  all  those 
of  the  councils  which  we  have  been  reviewing  in  these  pages. 
The  first  portion  is  a  thorough  digest  of  Christian  doctrine  and 
the  second  a  summary  of  discipline  for  tlie  American  Church. 
For  the  convenience  of  tliose  who  desire  to  refer  to  the  volume, 
it  is  arranged  in  chapters  and  sections  and  indexed  fully.  Every- 
thing  about   it   bears    the  stamp  of  Archbishop  Spalding's  command- 


TIIU  COUNCILS  OF  BALTIMORE.  43 

lug  genius,  assisted  by  the  scholarly  talents  of  his  brother  prelates 
and  the  theologians  of  the  council.  Well  might  Archbishop  Cor- 
rigan,  in  his  sermon  on  "  Our  Deceased  Prelates "  (given  else- 
where in  full)  speaking  of  Archbishop  Spalding,  exclaim:  "The 
generation  to  come  will  have  reason  to  bless  his  memory  for  all 
that    he    accomplished    for    the    Church    in    America." 

Title  X  of  chapter  lY,  p.  243,  contains  a  specially  interesting  de- 
•cree.  The  council  was  swift  in  recognizing  the  immense  change 
brought  about  by  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves,  and  this  long 
and  careful  decree  relates  to  efforts  for  their  conversion.  It  begins 
by  reciting  the  well-known  fact  that  Protestants  have  never 
•converted  a  heathen  people  and  by  dwelling  on  the  deplorable 
condition  of  the  manumitted  negroes,  plunged  in  darkness  and 
Fetichism.  Each  archbishop  is  exhorted  to  make  a  careful  study 
of  the  situation  in  regard  to  the  blacks  in  his  province  and  to 
take  such  steps  as  he  thinks  proper  to  Christianize  this  unfor- 
tunate people.  It  will  be  remembered  how  this  decree  and  the 
consequent  acts  of  Provincial  Councils  excited  the  ire  of  a  bigoted 
part  of  the  American  press,  and  how  a  certain  New  York  pictorial 
"Journal  of  Barbarism"  libelled  the  clergy  of  the  American  Church 
until  the  indignant  protests  of  the  fair-minded  American  people 
compelled  it  to  desist.  In  order  to  show  the  calm  and  temperate 
tone  of  the  prelates,  in  such  striking  contrast  to  the  disturbed 
feelings  on  both  sides  at  that  time,  a  part  of  the  council's  pas- 
toral letter  is    quoted : 

"  We  must  all  feel  that  in  some  manner  a  new  and  most  ex- 
tensive field  of  charity  and  devotedness  has  been  opened  to  us  by 
the  emancipation  of  the  immense  slave  population  of  the  South. 
We  could  have  wished,  that  in  accordance  with  the  action  of  the 
Catholic  Church  in  past  ages,  in  regard  to  the  serfs  of  Europe,  a 
more  gradual  system  of  emancipation  could  have  been  adopted,  so 
that  they  might  have  been  in  some  measure  prepared  to  make  a 
better  use  of  their  freedom  than  they  are  likely  to  do  now.  Still 
the  evils  whicli  must  necessarily  attend  upon  the  sudden  liberation 
•of  so  large  a  multitude,  with  their  peculiar  dispositions  and  habits, 
only  make  appeal  to  our  Christian  charity  and  zeal,  presented  by 
their  forlorn  condition,  the  more  forcible  and  imperative.  We  urge 
upon  the  clergy  and  people  of  our  charge  the  most  generous  co- 
operation   with    the    plans    which    may   be    adopted    by    the    bishops 


44  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

of  the  dioceses  in  which  they  arc,  to  extend  to  them  that  Chris- 
tian education  and  moral  restraint  of  which  they  stand  in  such 
need.  Our  only  regret  in  regard  to  the  matter  is,  that  our  means 
and  opportunity  of  spreading  over  them  the  protecting  and  salutary 
influences    of  our    holy   religion    are    so    restricted." 

There  is  not  a  thoughtful  man  in  America  to-day  who  will  not 
endorse  this  wonderfully  sagacious  forecast  of  the  American  bishops. 
The  truth  is,  the  Church  has  the  experience  of  ages;  she  is  not 
moved  by  the  evanescent  passions  of  the  moment ;  but,  guided  from 
on  high,  she  moves  forward  calmly  and  steadily ;  her  prelates  catch 
her  spirit  and  "  like  stars   to  their  appointed  heights  they  rise." 

Parochial  and  industrial  schools  are  recommended,  nay,  com- 
manded, where  possible,  in  two  decrees.  Tlie  relations  of  Church 
and  State  are  luminously  explained.  Many  of  the  popular  theories 
of  to-day  are  condemned.  Spiritism  (falsely  called  Spiritualism)  being 
described  as  the  work  of  Satan  and  his  attendant  demons.  In 
conclusion  we  quote  the  weighty  words  of  the  council  on  the 
newspaper  press  : 

"AVe  cheerfully  acknowledge  the  services  the  Catholic  press  has 
rendered  to  religion,  as  also  the  disinterestedness  with  which,  in 
most  instances,  it  has  been  conducted,  although  yielding  to  pub- 
lishers and  editors  a  very  insufficient  return  for  their  labors.  We 
exhort  the  Catholic  community  to  extend  to  these  publications  a 
more  liberal  support,  in  order  that  they  may  be  enabled  to  become 
more  M'orthy  the  great  cause  they  advocate.  We  remind  them  that 
the  power  of  the  press  is  one  of  the  most  striking  features  of 
modern  society ;  and  that  it  is  our  duty  to  avail  ourselves  of  this 
mode  of  making  known  the  truths  of  our  religion  and  removing 
the  misapprehensions  which  so  generally  prevail  in  regard  to  them." 

To  reinforce  the  above,  the  letter  of  Pope  Pius  IX,  February 
12,  1866,  is  adduced,  in  which  he  speaks  of  the  evil  secular 
press  which  is  animated  by  a  diabolical  hatred  of  our  holy  religion,, 
and  of  the  necessity  of  having  a  Catholic  press  to  counteract  the 
mischievous  influence  of  those  Avho  have  seized  upon  the  art  in- 
vented by  a  Catholic  and  turned  it  into  an  engine  of  destruction 
against    the    Church. 

The  last  decree  of  the  council  is  devoted  to  the  recommenda- 
tion of  the  erection  of  fifteen  new  episcopal  sees. 

There   were    many    interesting    questions   canvassed  in  this  council 


THE  COUNCILS  OF  BALTIMORE.  45 

and  in  regard  to  which  there  are  contained  in  the  volume  before 
iis^  several  letters  back  and  forth  between  the  Koman  Congregations 
and  the  American  prelates.  But  we  have  already  outrun  our  limits, 
and  must  close  by  noting  tlic  impulse  whicli  the  council  gave  to 
the  progress  of  the  Church  in  America.  In  a  period  of  eighteen 
years  the  number  of  the  hierarchy  has  doubled;  the  number  of 
priests  has  risen  from  about  3,000  to  about  8,000;  churches,  from 
3,500  to  8,500;  while  the  Catholic  population,  which  was  5,500,000 
in  1866,  is  to-day  over  8,000,000 — some  placing  it  as  high  as 
10,000,000. 

'  "Concilii  Plenarii  Baltimorensis  IT.  Acta  et  Decreta."    Editio  Altera  Mendis  Expurgata. 
Baltiniora?,  MDCCCLXXX. 


THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 


THE   third   Plenary  Council  was  formally  opened   in  the  Cathedral 
of  Baltimore    on    Sunday,    November    9,  and   continued   for    four- 
weeks,    closing   on    Sunday,    December    7,    1884. 

A  conference  of  the  American  bishops  had  been  held  in  Rome 
the  preceding  year,  at  which,  under  the  guidance  of  Congregations 
of  Roman  cardinals,  the  schema  of  our  third  National  Council  were 
prepared,  and  the  Most  Rev.  James  Gibbous,  D.D.,  Archbishop 
of  Baltimore,  was  appointed  by  our  Most  Holy  Lord,  Leo  XIII,. 
Pope,  as  Apostolic  Delegate,  to  preside  over  the  august  assemblage 
which  recently  closed  in  Baltimore. 

The  number  of  prelates  who  took  part  M'as  nearly  double 
that  of  those  who  attended  the  second  Plenary  Council.  The  mem- 
mers  were  divided  in  rank  as  follows :  Fourteen  archbishops,  sixty 
bishops,  five  visiting  bishops  from  Canada  and  Japan,  seven  abbots,  one 
prefect  apostolic,  eleven  monsignors,  eighteen  vicars  general,  twenty- 
three  superiors  of  religious  orders,  twelve  rectors  of  seminaries, 
and  ninety  theologians.  A  large  number  of  clergymen  from  all 
parts   of  the    country   participated   in    the    ceremonies. 

I. 

At  9.30  A.M.  of  trhe  opening  day  the  prelates  met  at  the 
archiepiscopal  residence,  and  being  joined  by  the  clergy,  moved  in 
solemn  procession  through  the  streets  to  the  Cathedral.  The  fol- 
lowing was  the  order  observed :  Cross-bearer  carrying  the  pro- 
cessional cross;  seminarians  of  St.  Sulpicc ;  regular  clergy;  secular 
clergy ;  chanters  ;  theologians  of  the  council ;  officials  of  the  council ; 
superiors  of  religious  orders ;  rectors  of  theological  seminaries ; 
Very  Rev.  and  Rt.  Rev.  monsignors ;  Rt.  Rev.  mitred  abbots ; 
Rt.  Rev.  bishops ;  Most  Rev.  archbishops ;  censer-bearer  carrying 
the  censer ;  archiepiscopal  cross-bearer  between  two  acolytes ;  assistant 
priest   of  the    Most    Rev.  Apostolic    Delegate;   Most  Rev.    Apostolic 

(46) 


ITS  HISTORY  AND  ITS  ACTS.  4T 

Delegate  between  liis  deacons  of  lionor ;  insignia-bearers  of  the 
Most    Rev.  Apostolic   Delegate. 

The  seminarians,  llev.  clergy  and  chanters  were  vested  in  cas- 
sock, surplice  and  biretum;  t!ie  Rev.  regular  dcrgy  in  the  habit  of 
their  respective  orders;  the  theologians  in  amice,  alb,  cincture,  red 
stole  and  red  chasuble;  the  officials  of  the  council,  superiors  of 
religious  orders,  rectors  of  seminaries  and  monsignors  in  surplice  (or 
rochet),  amice,  red  cope  and  biretum;  the  Rt.  Rev.  mitred  abbots 
in  the  habit  of  their  respective  orders,  red  cope  and  plain  white 
mitre;  Rt.  Rev.  bishops  and  Most  Rev.  archbishops  in  rochet, 
amice,  red  cope  and  plain  gold  mitre;  the  assistant  priest  in  sur- 
plice, amice,  red  cope  and  biretum;  the  deacons  of  honor  in  amice, 
alb,  cincture  and  red  dalmatic;  the  Most  Rev.  Apostolic  Delegate  in 
amice,    alb,    cincture,  red    stole,    red    cope  and  precious    mitre. 

During  the  procession  the  hymns  Vcnl  Creator  Spiritus  (The 
Hymn  to  the  Holy  Ghost),  Ave  3Iaris  Stella  (The  Hymn  to  the 
Blessed  Virgin),  and  the  Psalms  80,  83  and  86  were  sung  by  the 
Rev.    clergy  and   choir. 

The  Most  Rev.  Apostolic  Delegate  on  reaching  the  altar  sang  the 
Prayer  to  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  to  the  Blessed  Virgin,  Patroness 
of  the  Cathedral.  Pontifical  High  Mass  was  celebrated  by  ihe  Most 
Rev.  Peter  Richard  Kenrick,  D.D.,  Archbishop  of  St.  Louis,  in 
presence  of  the  Most  Rev.  Apostolic  Delegate,  who  occupied  the 
throne   at   the    Gospel    side  of  the    sanctuary. 

At  the  end  of  the  Mass  the  Most  Rev.  celebrant  retired  ta 
the  sacristy,  accompanied  by  his  attendant  ministers.  The  Mest. 
Rev.  Patrick  J.  Ryan,  D.D.,  Archbishop  of  Philadelphia,  then 
ascended  the  pulpit  and  preached  the  opening  sermon,  the  subject 
being :    "  The  Church  in  Her  Councils." 

After  the  sermon  the  ceremonies  proper  to  the  opening  session 
were  begun.  They  were  as  follows :  Antiphon  and  psalm  by  the 
choir;  prayer  by  the  Apostolic  Delegate;  litany  of  the  saints  by  the 
choir;  prayer  by  the  Apostolic  Delegate;  Gospel  by  the  deacon; 
hymn,  Veni  Creator,  by  the  choir;  address  by  the  Apostolic  Delegate; 
formal  opening  of  the  council;  reading  of  preliminary  decrees  which 
regard  the  rules  to  be  observed  in  the  council,  etc.,  etc.;  roll  of 
members  called;  profession  of  faith  made  by  all  the  members  of  the 
council;  announcement  of  the  date  of  the  following  session;  Papal 
Benediction  by  the  Apostolic  Delegate;  return  of  the  procession  to- 
the    archiepiscopal   residence. 


48  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL  : 

II. 

On    the    Sundays    during   the    council,    the    public     ceremonies    in 
the  evening  consisted  of  Pontifical  Vespers,  sermon  and    Benediction 
of  the  Blessed  Sacrament.     On   the  Mondays,  Tuesdays,   Wednesdays 
and    Fridays    of    each    week    the    public     ceremonies    in    the    evening 
consisted   of  a    sermon    and    Benediction    of    the    Blessed    Sacrament. 
Every  Sunday  and    Thursday  except   the    first    Thursday,  there   was  a 
solemn   session  of  the  council,  at  which  the  two   houses  of  the  bishops 
and   theologians    met    and   passed    upon    the   decrees.     The    following 
are    the    dates  of  the    sermons    preached    by    the    prelates    and    given 
elsewhere,    except     the    two    in  Latin :    Sunday,    November    9,    10.30 
A.INI.,  "  The    Church    in  her    Councils,"    by    Most  Eev.  P.  J.    Eyan, 
D.D,  Archbishop    of  Philadelphia;    7.30    P.M.,    "The    Unity    of  the 
Church,"  by    Right    Rev.  J.  Shanahan,  D.D.,    Bishoj)  of  Harrisburg; 
Monday,    November    10,    "  The    Church — the    Support    of    Just    Gov- 
ernment,"   by    Right    Rev.    J.    Ireland,   D.D.,    Bishop    of    St.    Paul ; 
Tuesday,  November    11,  "The    Church    and   Science,"  by  Right  Rev. 
T.  A.  Becker,    D.D.,  Bishop    of  Wilmington ;  Wednesday,  November 
12,    "  The    Necessity    of    Revelation,"    by    Right    Rev.    R.    Gilmour, 
D.D.,    Bishop    of    Cleveland;    Thursday,    November    13,    "  De    Mor- 
tuis — Our  Deceased  Prelates,"  by  Most    Rev.  M.  A.  Corrigan,  D.D., 
Coadjutor     Archbishop     of     New     York;      Friday,     November     14, 
"  Indian    Missions,"  by    Most    Rev.    C.  J.  Seghers,  D.D.,  Archbishop 
of  Oregon;    Sunday,  November    16,   10.30    A.M.,  "The   Priesthood," 
by    Most    Rev.  AV.  H.    Elder,   D.D.,  Archbishop   of  Cincinnati ;    7.30 
P.M.,    "The    Higher  Education    of  the    Priesthood,"  by    Right    Rev. 
J.    L.    Spalding,    D.D.,    Bishop    of    Peoria;    Monday,    November    17, 
"Faith    and     Reason,"     by    Right    Rev.     J.     A.     Watterson,     D.D., 
Bishop    of    Columbus ;     Tuesday,     November     18,    "  Christian    Mar- 
riage,"   by  Right    Rev.  M.    J.    O'Farrell,  D.D.,   Bishop    of  Trenton; 
Wednesday,    November    19,    "The   Observation    of    Feasts,    etc.,"    by 
Right    Rev.    S.    Y.     Ryan,    D.D.,     Bishop     of    Buffalo;     Thursday, 
November    20,    "  De    Sacerdotio — The    Holy    Priesthood,"    by     Most 
Rev.    J.    S.    Alemany,  D.D.,   Archbishop    of  San    Francisco ;    Friday, 
November   21,    "The    Missions    for    the    Colored    People,"    by    Right 
Rev.  W.  "H.  Gross,  D.D.,    Bishop    of  Savannah ;   Sunday,    November 
23,    10.30   A.M.,    "The    Sacrifice    of  the    Mass,"  by    Right    Rev.  E. 
Fitzgerald,    D.D.,    Bishop  of    Little    Rock;    Monday,    November    24, 


Most  Rev.  Michael  Heiss,  D.JJ. 


ITS  HISTORY  AND  ITS  ACTS.  49 

<'Tlie  Catholicity  of  the  Church/'  by  Eight  Rev.  J.  O'Connor, 
D.D.,  Vicar-Apostolic  of  Nebraska;  Tuesday,  November  25,  "Cath- 
olic Societies,"  by  Right  Rev.  J.  J.  Keane,  D.D.,  Bishop  of  Rich- 
mond ;  Wednesday,  November  26,  "  The  Progress  of  the  Church 
in  the  United  States,"  by  Right  Rev.  B.  J.  McQuaid,  D.D., 
Bishop  of  Rochester ;  Thursday,  November  27,  "  De  Dignitate  Sa- 
■cerdotali — The  Dignity  of  the  Holy  Priesthood,"  by  Most  Rev.  M. 
Heiss,  D.D.,  Archbishop  of  Milwaukee ;  "  Thanksgiving  Day ,"  by 
Right  Rev.  J.  L.  Spalding,  D.D.,  Bishop  of  Peoria,  111. ;  Friday, 
November  28,  "  The  Blessed  Virgin  Mary,  Patroness  of  the  Church 
in  the  United  States,"  by  Right  Rev.  F.  S.  Chatard,  D.D.,  Bishop 
of  Vincennes;  Sunday,  November  30,  10.30  A.M.,  "The  Sanctity 
of  the  Church,"  by  Right  Rev.  J.  Hennessy,  D.D.,  Bishop  of 
Dubuque;  Thursday,  December  4,  10.30  A.M.,  "The  Papacy,"  by 
Rev.  W.  Wayrich,  C.SS.R. ;  Sunday,  December  7,  10.30  A.M., 
•"The  Work  of  the  Council,"  by  Right  Rev.  J.  L.  Spalding,  D.D., 
Bishop    of  Peoria,  111. 

At  St.  Alphonsus's  Church,  which  was  used  as  a  pro-Cathedral, 
the  following  sermons  were  preached  in  the  German  language : 
November  9,  Sunday  evening,  the  Most  Rev.  Michael  Heiss,  D.D., 
Archbishop  of  Milwaukee.  Subject,  "  The  Councils  of  the  Church — 
Their  History  and  Their  Usefulness;"  November  12,  Wednesday 
evening,  Rt.  Rev.  Martin  Marty,  O.S.B,,  D.D.-,  Vicar  Apostolic  of 
Dakota  Territory.  Subject,  "  The  Church — Her  Indestructibility  and 
Infallibility ; "  November  14,  Friday  evening,  Rt.  Rev.  Caspar  H. 
Borgess,  D.D.,  Bishop  of  Detroit.  Subject,  "  The  Church — Her  Unity 
and  Sanctity;"  November  16,  Sunday  evening,  Rt.  Rev.  Joseph  Dwen- 
ger,  D.D.,  Bishop  of  Fort  Wayne.  Subject,  "The  Church — Her 
Apostolicity  and  Catholicity;  or,  Tlie  Reformation  is  in  Principle 
a  Denial  of  the  Divinity  of  Christ ; "  November  19,  Wednesday 
evening,  Rt.  Rev.  Francis  Xav.  Krautbauer,  D.D.,  Bishop  of  Green 
Bay.  Subject,  "  The  Church  in  America — Especially  the  German 
Element;"  November  21,  Friday  evening,  Rt.  Rev.  Joseph  Rade- 
macher,  Y).D.,  Bishop  of  Nashville.  Subject,  "  Catholic  Schools — 
Their  Necessity  to  the  Child  and  their  Influence  on  Society;" 
November  23,  Sunday  evening,  Rt.  Rev.  Henry  Joseph  Richter, 
D.D.,  Bishop  of  Grand  Rapids.  Subject,  "The  Indissolubility  and 
Sanctity  of  Matrimony ; "  November  26,  Wednesday  evening,  Rt.  Rev. 
Kilian    C.    Flascli,  D.D.,    Bishop  of  La  Crosse.     Subject,  "  The  First 


50  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL: 

Precept  of  the  Church ; "  November  28,  Friday  evening,  Rt.  Rev. 
Winand  Michael  Wigger,  D.D.,  Bishop  of  Newark.  Subject,  "  The 
Love  of  the  Most  Sacred  Heart  of  Jesus  to  Man ; "  November  30, 
Sunday  evening,  Rt.  Rev.  Aegidius  Junger,  D.D.,  Bishop  of  Nes- 
qually,  Washington  Territory.  Subject,  "  Mary,  the  Mother  of  Jesus^ 
is  our  Spiritual  Mother." 

III. 

On  the  last  day  of  the  council,  Sunday,  December  7,  there 
was  a  procession  as  on  the  first.  White  vestments  were  worn 
during  the  procession  and  the  Pontifical  High  Mass,  which  was 
that  of  the  Most  Holy  Trinity,  celebrated  by  the  Most  Rev.  M.  A.. 
Corrigan,  Coadjutor  Archbishop  of  New  York;  and  red  vestments 
during  the  closing  session.  At  the  end  of  the  Mass,  Right  Rev. 
J.  L.  Spalding  preached  the  sermon,  on  "  The  Work  of  the  Coun- 
cil." After  the  sermon,  the  bishops  and  prelates  in  the  sanctuary, 
and  all  the  other  members  of  the  council  in  the  sacristy,  ex- 
changed the  white  vestments  worn  during  Mass  for  those  of  a 
red  color  (this  color  being  symbolical  of  the  tongues  of  fire  which 
descended    on    the    Apostles    on    Pentecost    Sunday). 

The  closing  ceremonies  of  the  council  were  as  follows:  1.  Prayers^ 
Hymn,  Psalms,  etc.,  similar  to  those  of  the  First  Session,  were 
sung.  2.  The  decrees  not  yet  voted  on,  were  proposed  to  the 
Fathers  of  the  Council.  3.  All  the  decrees  were  signed.  4.  Roll 
of  members  called.  5.  Acclamations  chanted.  6.  Kiss  of  Peace 
given.  7.  Te  Dcum  by  the  choir.  8.  Closing  Prayers.  9.  Papal 
Benediction  by  the  Most  Rev.  Apostolic  Delegate.  10.  Return  of 
the  procession  to  the  Archiepiscopal  residence  and  to  St.  Alphon- 
sus's    Hall   as   on    Sunday,    November    9. 

IV. 

What  the  decrees  of  the  council  are  will  not  be  made  known 
in  an  official  form  until  they  have  received  the  approval  of  the 
Roman  Congregations  and  the  Holy  Father.  It  is,  however,  well 
understood  that  the  principal  object  of  the  meeting  Avas  to  devise 
means  for  a  gradual  introduction  of  canon  law  into  this  comitry. 
It  is  reported  that  one-tenth  of  the  pastors  will  be  made  irre- 
movable  rectors ;    that   ecclesiastical   courts   will   be    established,  con- 


ITS  HISTORY  AND  ITS  ACTS.  51 

sisting  of  two,  four,  or  six  clergymen,  to  be  known  as  consultors, 
according  to  the  size  of  the  diocese,  and  these  courts  will  have 
considerable  powers  as  advisers ;  that  the  consultors  and  irremov- 
able rectors  will,  when  occasion  arises,  select  three  names,  out  of 
which  the  Pope,  after  considering  any  objections  which  the  bishops 
of  that  province  may  make  to  one  or  all  the  names,  will  select 
one  as  bishop,  or  send  all  back  for  reconsideration.  Other  im- 
portant decrees  were  passed,  such  as  one  adopting  a  universal 
catechism,  the  j)rofits  on  the  sale  of  which  is  to  be  devoted  to 
the  maintenance  of  Catholic  schools ;  the  selection  of  a  single 
Catholic  newspaper  in  each  province  for  special  support ;  longer 
terms  for  the  education  of  priests,  and  the  establishment  of  a 
Catholic  university  for  which  funds  have  been  provided ;  and 
various  other  measures  which  will  all  be  made  known  in  a  clearer 
and  more  definite  form  when  the   decrees   are  published. 

The  pastoral  letter  of  the  council,  which  is  printed  at  the  con- 
clusion of  this  volume,  has  been  received  by  the  American  public 
in  the  most  cordial  manner.  Comments  of  the  secular  press  could 
be  quoted  by  the  score  praising  the  broad,  patriotic,  and  enlight- 
ened views  of  the  prelates  and  the  sterling  character  of  the  Chris- 
tian counsel  which  they  give  to  the  eight  or  ten  million  of  the 
faithful,   of  whose  spiritual  aifairs  they  have  charge. 

A  new  chapter  has  been  added  to  the  history  of  American 
Catholicity;  and  it  is  one  of  which  every  member  of  this  great 
council  may  well  feel  jjroud  to  the  last  day  of  his  life.  By  their 
labors  they  have  gained  the  more  loving  allegiance  of  the  Catho- 
lic laity,  and  a  higher  degree  of  respect  and  honor  from  their 
fellow  citizens   of  other  creeds. 


THE  RECEPTION. 


AT  the  Concordia  Opera  House,  on  Thursday  evening,  November 
20,  the  citizens  of  Baltimore  tendered  a  grand  reception  to  the 
members  of  the  third  Plenary  Council.  Among  the  seven  hundred 
or  eight  hundred  present  in  the  hall  were  many  of  the  notabilities 
of  official   and  judicial    life. 

Seated  on  '  the  stage  were  Archbishops  Gibbons,  of  Baltimore, 
and  Williams,  of  Boston ;  Hon.  W.  J.  O'Brien,  who  presided  as 
chairman,  Judge  William  M.  Merrick  and  Mr.  Charles  J.  Bonaparte. 
At  nine  o'clock,  the  Hon.  William  J.  O'Brien  called  the  assemblage 
to    order   and    said : 

3Iost  Rei\,  Right  Rev.  and  Rev.  Sirs — The  Catholics  of  Baltimore 
have  availed  themselves  of  your  presence  in  our  city  at  the  third 
Plenary  Council  to  tender  to  you  this  evening's  reception.  It  is 
with  great  pleasure  that  they  testify  their  high  respect  for  you 
personally  and  their  devotion  to  our  Holy  Mother  Church.  I  now 
introduce    Mr.  Charles    J.  Bonaparte,  M'ho    will   address    you. 

Mr.  Charles  J.  Bonaparte  then  advanced  to  the  front  of  the 
stage    and    spoke    as    follows : 

Reverend  Prelates — The  Catholics  of  Baltimore,  in  whose  name  I 
address  you,  express,  by  their  gathering  to-night,  the  interest  felt, 
not  by  Baltimorcans  or  Catholics  only,  but  by  citizens  of  all  our 
States  and  thoughtful  men  of  every  creed,  in  the  third  Plenary 
Council  of  the  American  Church.  This  interest  arises  less  from 
curiosity  regarding  the  details  of  your  work,  the  particular  measures 
which  your  wisdom  may  devise  to  define  tlie  teaching  or  perfect 
the  discipline  of  the  Church,  than  from  the  living  proof  which 
your  meeting  affords  of  its  harmony,  its  vitality,  its  steady,  unvary- 
ing growth  in  the  great  nation  of  the  New  World.  Catholics 
compare  with  a  just  pride  in  their  religion  this  reunion  Avith  its 
predecessors  j  note  the  new  sees  grown  up  wliere  was  yesterday 
a   wilderness,  the    provinces    become    too    large    for   the   guidance   of 

(52) 


THE  RECEPTION.  53 

a  single  hand,  the  thousand  churches  risen  from  their  foundations 
since  last  the  bishops  of  the  United  States  met  to  take  counsel ; 
the  monasteries,  asylums,  convents,  colleges,  hospitals,  schools,  then 
unthought  of,  now  active  and  prosperous ;  and  they  feel  a  reason- 
able confidence  that  as  the  past  has  been,  so  will  be  the  future, 
that  the  Church  in  our  country  is  destined,  under  God's  provi- 
dence, to  live  and  to  jjurify  our  people.  Of  this  lioi^e,  which  you 
share  with  us,  I  need  say  no  more ;  let  me  dwell  for  a  moment 
on  the  reasons  why  our  fellow-citizens  M'ho,  unhappily,  differ  from 
us  in  belief;  or,  at  least,  those  qualified  by  education  and  reflec- 
tion to  appreciate  the  drift  of  men  and  things  around  us,  may 
look    on    your    meeting    as    of  grave    and  joyful    significance. 

In  our  day  and  country  two  classes  of  thinking  men  contem- 
plate the  phases  of  life  and  thought  portrayed  in  the  manners  of 
the  times  with  ever-increasing  anxiety.  Many  see,  with  alarm  and 
distress  fast  deepening  into  silent  despair,  religious  faith  in  them- 
selves and  others  fading  into  a  dim  uncertainty  as  to  everything 
beyond  the  world  of  sense.  These  men  are  skeptics,  involuntary 
skeptics,  as  to  everything.  They  would  believe  in  a  God,  but  they 
find  only  a  possibility  of  His  existence  in  physical  science,  and 
His  alleged  revelation  as  doubtful  for  critics  as  Himself;  they 
Avould  believe  in  their  own  immortality,  but  they  can  only  hope 
it  is  real;  they  feel,  too  clearly  for  their  happiness,  that  with  the 
fundamental  doctrines  of  Christianity  they  give  up  the  quickening 
spirit  of  modern  civilization,  but  the  light  which  shows  the  abyss 
at  whose  brink  they  stand,  reveals  no  way  of  escape.  They  have 
seen  the  religions  they  may  still  formally  profess,  qualify  and  make 
meaningless  one  tenet  after  another,  concede  this  point,  silently 
abandon  that,  try  vainly  to  compromise  over  and  over  again  with 
a  constantly  advancing  spirit  of  materialism  and  negation,  until  the 
very  idea  that  there  can  be  any  fixed,  immutable  religious  truth, 
lias  become  strange  to  them.  And,  while  they  have  lost  so  much, 
they  have  gained  nothing.  The  followers  of  Luther  or  Calvin 
could  believe  in  a  reformed  Church;  the  disciples  of  Voltaire  or 
Rousseau  could  believe  in  a  regenerated  society;  but  modern  agnos- 
tics   can    believe    nothing,  not    even    that  they    were  wrong  before. 

Others  look  less  below  the  surface  of  things ;  they  are  troubled 
by  phenomena  in  which  the  first  class  recognize  outward  symptoms 
of    the   same    deep-seated    evil.       On    all     sides    they    note    in    the 


54  THE  THIRD   PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

American  people  a  blunting  of  the  sense  of  justice;  a  growing  dim- 
ness of  our  moral  sight;  an  inability  to  distinguish  clearly  and 
promptly  between  right  and  wrong;  a  tendency  to  resolve  ethics 
into  mere  blind  sentiment ;  in  short,  a  distortion  and  maiming  of 
the  national  conscience.  It  is  not  that  we  have  among  us  bad 
men,  and  that  these  do  after  their  kind ;  this  but  proves  the  in- 
herited frailty  of  our  luiman  nature;  it  is  that  we  seem  no  longer 
to  know  bad  men  and  wicked  acts  Avhen  we  see  them,  or  to  know 
how  to  deal  with  them  if  we  do.  We  live  in  an  age  of  con- 
doned dishonor,  of  prosperous  fraud,  when  brazen  guilt  need  fear 
no  reproach,  if  only  it  has  paid.  That  wealth  and  what  wealth 
brings  should  be  gained  through  baseness ;  vast  fortunes  be  built 
up  on  falsehood  and  deceit  and  breach  of  trust,  the  perversion  of  jus- 
tice, the  debauchery  of  public  servants,  is,  after  all,  what  is  seen 
everywhere,  and  has  been  seen  always,  and  must  be  seen  while 
men  remain  men ;  but  that  those  who  thus  for  profit  trample  on 
divine  precept  and  evade  human  law  should  be  met  by  the  voices 
of  public  opinion,  the  guardians  of  public  morals,  with  a  faltering 
denunciation,  a  halting  reproof,  an  indignation  but  half  kindled  and 
dvimr  out  almost  before  it  has  flickered ;  that  their  fruitful  sins 
should  be  forgotten  before  they  are  cold,  and  the  sight  of  their  scan- 
dalous prosperity  awaken  but  admiration  and  envy — these  things  re- 
veal a  canker  eating  into  the  heart  of  the  nation.  Many  indis- 
posed to  more  abstruse  speculation,  yet  feel  this  and  are  startled  by 
it,  and  cast  around  their  eyes  for  some  guide  in  morals  who  at  least 
knows  his  mind  and  dares  to  speak  it. 

To  both  classes  we  declare  that  which  they  elsewhere  vainly 
seek.  The  creed  of  the  Catliolic  Church  is  founded  on  no  theory 
in  physics  or  psychology,  and  she  makes  no  treaty  with  such  theo- 
ries. She  teaches  not  what  she  thinks  from  reasoning,  but  what 
she  knows  from  an  ever-present,  unceasing  revelation.  With  her 
facts  hypotheses,  however  phiusible  or  ingenious,  must  square  them- 
selves as  best  they  may ;  it  is  not  her  business  to  point  out  their 
inconsistencies  or  to  correct  their  errors.  She  does  not  so  much  con- 
demn them  as  disregard  them ;  she  believes,  not  indeed  because, 
but  although  wliat  she  believes  may  be,  humanly  speaking,  impos- 
sible. And  slie  has  no  fear  of  tlic  futnre ;  as  all  the  speculations 
of  idealist  metaphysicians  have  never  made  one  man  doubt  for  one 
moment   the    reality    of  his    own  existence  or  that  of  the  visible  nni- 


THE  RECEPTION.  65 

verse,  so  no  proof,  however  conclusive  in  seeming,  that  our  spirit- 
ual life  is  a  dream,  eternity  a  blank,  the  Gospel  a  myth  or  a 
forgery,  can  touch  her,  who  lives  and  breathes  and  has  her  being 
in  the  reality  and  truth  of  all  these  things.  Sure  of  her  mission, 
she  shrinks  from  none  of  its  responsibilities.  Her  religion  is  no 
abstraction ;  it  is  a  practical  rule  of  life.  She  is  not  content  with 
a  passive  assent  to  her  claims ;  her  children  must  heed  her  voice 
and  do  her  work  at  all  times  and  in  all  places,  on  the  days  of 
labor  as  on  the  day  of  rest,  by  the  family  hearth,  in  the  forum, 
in  the  mart  no  less  than  within  the  temple  and  before  the  altar. 
Every  act  or  thought,  however  minute  or  private,  is  subjected  to 
her  scrutiny  and  may  merit  her  rebuke.  She  would  not  merely 
invite,  but  compel  men  to  do  right ;  and  what  is  right  she  always 
knows  and  is  always  ready  to  say. 

You  are  fortunate,  venerable  Fathers,  in  the  time  of  your  meet- 
ing. At  this  moment  we  discharge  the  grave  duty  imposed  on  us 
all  by  our  form  of  government,  of  choosing  our  chief  ruler. 

Thoughtful  and  patriotic  men  throughout  the  country  are  now 
reminding  us  of  the  principles  on  which  our  polity  is  founded. 
That  the  happiness  of  a  republic  depends  on  the  virtue  of  its 
citizens ;  that  the  suffrage  is  not  a  privilege  to  be  abdicated  or 
bartered  away,  but  a  trust  to  be  sacredly  filled ;  that  no  man  has 
a  right  to  give  his  conscience  into  the  keeping  of  any  party  or 
faction,  or  to  surrender  himself  for  a  season  to  tiie  promptings  of 
blind  prejudice  or  selfish  greed;  that  hypocrisy  and  calumny  and 
falsehood  in  every  sliape  are  no  less  mean  and  hateful  during  a 
political  campaign  than  before  or  after  it ;  these  truths  they  would 
now  have  us  call  to  mind.  And  should  not  your  assembling  aid 
to  recall  them  ?  True,  tlie  Catholic  Church  has  no  politics ;  she 
knows  nothing  of  candidates  or  platforms,  of  administrations  or 
policies,  of  tariffs  or  currencies ;  she  is  mute  on  every  question 
as  to  which  honest  men  may  honestly  differ,  and  no  more  tells 
her  children  what  ticket  they  shall  vote  than  what  food  they  shall  eat 
•or  what  clothes  they  shall  wear.  But,  as  she  demands  that  they 
shall  eat  with  temperance,  that  they  shall  dress  with  decency,  so 
she  requires  of  them  to  vote  with  an  unclouded  judgment,  with  an 
undrugged  conscience,  with  the  good  of  the  country  as  their  mo- 
tive, with  the  fear  of  God  before  their  eyes.  She  does  not  meddle 
with    the    things    of    Csesar,    but    honor   and    truth,    good   faith    and 


56  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL, 

public  spirit,  loyalty  to  our  rulers,  candor  and  charity  towards  our 
fellow-men ;  these  are  not  the  things  of  Caesar,  they  are  hers  and 
she  will  have  them,  of  all  that  belong  to  her ;  no  man  can  be  at 
once  a  good  Catholic  and  a  bad  citizen. 

To  your  assembly  are  turned,  now  when  our  wants  are  most 
sorely  felt,  the  eyes  of  those  who  seek,  amid  the  baseness  and 
injustice  which  political  agitation  brings  as  scum  to  the  surface  of 
our  national  life,  the  forces  left  among  us  which  yet  make  for 
righteousness.  They  greet  you  as  shepherds  who  will  do  battle 
with  the  ravening  wolves  of  selfishness  and  avarice — as  physicians, 
M'ho  will  cure  the  spreading  ulcer  of  dishonesty  and  falsehood. 
AVe,  who  speak  for  them,  are  here  to  tell  you  that  we  recognize 
the  immensity  of  your  task,  and  our  obligation  to  aid  you  in  our 
humbler  sphere.  What  you  shall  determine  your  spiritual  children 
will  accept  with  reverence  and  observe  with  loyalty.  They  leave 
with  confidence  to  your  wisdom  the  means  by  which  the  good 
cause  may  be  made  to  prosper ;  but  they  ask  with  earnestness 
and  humility  of  Almighty  God,  who  illumines  your  minds  and 
strengthens  your  purpose,  that  through  this  council  He  may  make 
the  American  people  more  worthy  of  His  priceless  gift — their  civil 
and    religious    liberty. 

The  chairman  then  introduced  Judge  William  M.  Merrick,  who 
spoke    as    follows : 

3Iost  Reverend  Archbishops,  Right  Reverend  Bishops,  and  3Iembers 
of  the  Third  Plenary  Council — To  you,  the  accredited  representatives 
and  guardians  of  the  spiritual  interests  of  eight  millions  of  Amer- 
ican Catholics,  the  Catholic  citizens  of  this  community  have  deputed 
me  to  extend  their  cordial  welcome,  and  to  express  their  profound 
gratification  at  your  presence  in  our  midst.  The  assemblage  of  any 
body  of  men,  voluntary  or  authoritative,  for  the  purpose  of  pro- 
moting the  advancement  of  their  fellow-beings,  whether  in  the  in- 
dustrial, the  social,  the  scientific,  the  political  or  the  moral  order, 
must  always  be  an  event  of  importance  and  of  interest.  The  measure 
of  the  importance  of  the  assemblage  is  the  importance  of  subject- 
matter  with  which  they  are  charged,  and  the  interest  felt  in  it  de- 
pends largely  upon  the  character  and  capacity  of  the  delegates  who 
have  been  brought  together.  How  great  then  must  be  the  import- 
ance,   how   profound    the    interest,    how    vivid    the    sympathy   whick 


THE  RECEPTION.  57 

attach  to  this  august  body,  charged  to  consider  of  the  social,  the 
moral  and  the  spiritual  welfare  of  the  millions  now  existing,  and 
of  the  countless  millions  who  hereafter,  in  this  republic,  will  regu- 
late their  lives  and  frame  their  immortal  hopes  in  accord  with  the 
teachings  of  the  Catholic  Church. 

Recognizing,  as  we  do,  that  the  motives  which  have  wrought 
to  bring  about  this  council  are  the  binding  together  in  good  will, 
for  good  purposes,  of  the  clergy  and  the  laity  of  the  Church  in 
America,  and  the  infusion  into  its  membership  of  a  more  vigorous 
spiritual  life ;  and  that  self-forgetfulness,  self-denial,  self-sacrifice  are 
the  moral  attributes  which  you  individually  cultivate,  we  tender  to  you 
in  your  official  character  our  veneration,  and  to  your  personal  char- 
acters our  affectionate  esteem  and  fraternal  greeting.  Neither  the 
adulation  of  individuals,  nor  of  official  station,  nor  anything  which 
savors  of  pandering  to  spiritual  pride  on  the  one  hand,  nor  of 
servile  dependence  on  the  other,  can  have  place  in  the  greetings 
which  the  Catholic  laity  tender  to  the  Catholic  clergy.  Such  induce- 
ments would  be  as  distasteful  to  yourselves  as  they  would  be  un- 
worthy of  those  on  whose  behalf  I  speak. 

This  reception  then  has  its  whole  significance  in,  and  is  meant 
to  represent  the  idea  of,  the  cordial  relations  which  exist  between 
the  Catholic  clergy  of  America  as  a  body,  and  the  Catholic  laity 
as  a  body;  of  the  unity  of  sentiment  which  forms  the  bond  be- 
tween the  one  and  the  other,  and  of  our  desire  to  manifest  before 
the  world  our  just  sense  of  the  benefits  conferred  upon  society — 
upon  humanity — by  the  Catholic  clergy  of  this  country,  who,  while 
steadily  inculcating  the  precepts  of  faith,  and  encouraging  the  growth 
of  the  spiritual  life,  and  thereby  aiding  us  to  fit  ourselves  for 
transit  to  a  higher  and  happier  sphere,  moreover  bear  a  most  im- 
portant part  in  advancing  civilization,  in  stimulating  and  promoting 
learning  and  the  arts ;  and  by  example  and  precept  assist  and  en- 
courage the  laity  in  the  due  performance  of  all  those  duties  which 
make  men  the  true-hearted  citizens  of  a  free  republic,  fully  abreast 
with  the  pro^'essive  spirit  of  the  age.  Nothing  is  more  generally 
misunderstood  than  the  teachings  and  the  tendencies  of  the  influence 
of  the  Catholic  Church  upon  republican  institutions;  and  doubtless 
this  council  has  been  looked  upon  by  many  with  pious  alarm,  lest 
it  prove  a  congress  convened  to  make  insidious  war  against  Ameri- 
can   freedom.      Very   many   well-intentioned   men    fail   to    understand 


58  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

how  loyalty  to  the  State  can  co-exist  with  obedience  to  the  Church, 
and  simply  because  they  do  not  know  that  the  jurisdictional  limits 
of  the  Church  are  rigorously  confined  to  the  domain  of  faith  and 
morals.  But  if,  instead  of  darkening  counsel,  candid  thought  were 
directed  to  the  Church's  incessant  teaching  of  the  Redeemer's  an- 
swer— "  Render  unto  Caesar  the  things  that  are  Caesar's,  and  to 
God  the  things  that  are  God's,"  and  to  its  fundamental  tenet  of 
the  universal  brotherhood  of  man ;  and  that  in  order  to  be  our 
Saviour  it  was  necessary  for  the  Holy  One  first  to  become  our 
Brother,  it  would  necessarily  be  admitted  that  the  doctrine  of  non- 
intervention with  forms  of  government  is  a  cardinal  doctrine  of 
the  Catholic  Church,  and  that  its  preaching  of  the  brotherhood 
and  equality  of  men,  and  its  salient  precepts  of  self-abnegation  and 
self-sacrifice  for  the  sake  of  our  fellow-men,  are  the  very  radicals 
out  of  which  all  political  freedom  in  modern  times  has  grown. 
Need  I,  in  proof,  refer  to  the  historic  fact,  which  stands  out 
clear  and  vivid  in  spite  of  all  calumny,  that  the  Catholic  clergy 
of  this  country  have  never  interfered  with  its  political  agitations? 
AYas  there  ever  an  occasion  on  which  any  portion  of  the  Catholic 
■clergy  passed  any  resolve  upon  any  political  issue  or  for  or 
against  any  candidate  for  public  favor?  Need  I  recall  to  memory 
the  time  when  this  country  was  torn  with  civil  strife,  and 
agonized  through  four  years  of  deadly  conflict,  how  that,  while  in 
many  other  Cliurch  organizations  there  was  dissension,  separation 
and  denunciation,  the  Catholic  Church  kept  aloof  from  either  side ; 
its  clergymen  inculcating  forbearance,  counselling  peace  and  ex- 
tending the  consolations  of  religion  without  stint,  and  in  the  unity 
of  faith,  to  all  without  distinction  ?  Individual  clergymen  entertained 
and  acted  upon  their  individual  opinions  as  citizens  on  either  side, 
but  never  acted  as  heated  partisans  on  any  side.  The  present 
occasion  especially  Avarrants  me  in  recalling  one  illustrious  instance 
in  affirmative  proof  of  the  natural  sympatliy  of  the  Church  with 
our    institutions. 

I  refer  to  your  great  predecessor,  sir — to  the  Most  Rev.  John 
Carroll,  the  first  Archbishop  of  Baltimore,  the  companion  and  in- 
timate friend  of  Washington,  a  zealous  advocate  of  American 
independence,  and  the  author  of  that  beautiful  prayer  published 
by  authority,  and  recited  publicly  every  Sunday  in  our  churches, 
in    which   we    say :    "  Let    the    light     of    Thy  divine    wisdom,    direct 


THE  RECEPTION.  59 

the  deliberations  of  Congress,  and  shine  forth  in  all  their  pro- 
ceedings and  laws,  framed  for  our  rule  and  government,  so  that 
they  may  tend  to  the  preservation  of  peace-,  the  promotion  of 
national  happiness,  the  increase  of  industry,  sobriety  and  useful 
knowledge,  and  may  perpetuate  to  us  the  blessings  of  equal  liberty." 
Yes !  here  is  an  authentic  teaching  of  the  American  Catholic 
>Church,  found  in  the  prayer  that  the  acts  of  our  national  gov- 
ernment may  be  directed  by  the  light  of  divine  wisdom,  to  the 
perpetuation  of  our  American  liberty.  Surely  when  the  invocation 
suggested  to  his  flock  by  the  first  Primate  of  America,  and  sanc- 
tioned by  the  unbroken  usage  of  his  successors,  goes  np,  through 
itlie  revolving  years,  from  the  earnest  hearts  of  millions  of 
Catholic  citizens,  for  the  perpetuation  of  the  blessings  of  equal 
liberty,  the  imputation  of  hostility  to  republican  institutions,  in  the 
"teachings  or  in  the  spirit  of  the  Catholic  Church,  has  been  thereby 
met,  and  effectually  refuted.  The  unexampled  growth  of  the  Catholic 
faith  in  this  country,  moreover,  proves  that  it  flourishes  best  in  an 
atmosphere  of  perfect  freedom  of  thought  and  opinion,  of  free  dis- 
cussion and  untrammelled  action.  Just  one  hundred  years  ago,  in 
l^ovember,  1784,  the  venerable  prelate,  whose  name  I  have  men- 
tioned, received  official  notification  of  his  appointment  as  the 
:spiritual  superior  of  the  Catholic  clergy  of  the  United  States;  by 
which  act  the  Church  in  America  became  an  organized  body, 
in  place  of  consisting  of  scattered  and  dependent  missions.  At 
that  time  the  Catholics  numbered  about  16,000  in  Maryland,  about 
7,000  in  Pennsylvania,  and  a  very  few  thousand  in  other  States, 
not  counting  the  Canadian  French  and  their  descendants  in  the 
territory  to  the  Avestward  of  the  Ohio,  and  on  the  borders  of  the 
Mississippi. 

At  this  centennial  date  more  than  eight  millions  may  be  com- 
puted within  the  republic.  This  could  not  have  come  to  pass 
were  free  thought  and  free  institutions  uncongenial  to  the  devel- 
opment of  the  Church.  It  must  be  obvious  then  to  anyone  who 
will  reflect  for  a  moment  upon  these  suggestions,  that  even  the 
inferior  motives  of  temporal  advantage  concur  with  those  of  the 
highest  and  noblest  type  in  binding  the  cause  of  human  liberty 
with    that    of  revealed    religion. 

But  not  only  is  the  spirit  of  the  Church  in  accord  with  the 
largest   liberty    of    citizenship;   it    has    nothing    to    fear,  nor    does    it 


60  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

shrink  from  the  greatest  freedom  of  philosophic  and  scientific  in- 
quiry. At  tlie  foundation  of  Christianity  it  encountered  all  the 
ancient  schools  of  philosophy  in  turn ;  Stoic,  Pythagorean,  Epi- 
curean, and  the  rest.  And  all  along  the  tract  of  its  early  history 
the  successive  speculative  opinions  which  it  encountered,  and  the 
successive  heresies  of  prominence  which  it  combatted  and  overthrew, 
had  their  support  in  the  subtlest  operalaons  of  the  acutest  in- 
tellects of  those  times. 

The  Church  did  not  hesitate  to  encounter  its  adversaries  in*  the 
very  field  of  human  reason  which  they  selected.  Excelling  them 
in  the  use  of  their  own  weapons,  it  converted  those  weapons  into 
instruments  of  its  own  triumph,  and  witli  a  wise  magnanimity  it 
has  preserved  and  been  really  the  only  means  of  preserving  the 
memory  of  those  schools  and  systems  from  oblivion.  It  has  made 
the  learning  of  those  schools  the  monument  of  its  own  glory ;  and 
in  its  turn  has  been  and  is  now  the  patron  of  intellectual 
development. 

One  of  the  tenets  of  the  Epicurean  school  still  survives,  and 
remains  in  a  modified  form  among  the  most  dangerous  impedi- 
ments to  fliith.  I  mean  the  opinion  that  the  distance  between 
Divinity  and  man  is  so  great  that  He  has  no  concern,  or  rather 
sympathy,  with  humanity,  and  that  therefore  any  and  all  creeds 
and  religious  requirements,  whether  for  the  regulation  of  our  con- 
duct here  or  as  incentives  to  effort  for  immortal  happiness,  are 
without  sanctions  to  uphold  them  and  are  utterly  fruitless.  Another, 
more  ignoble,  but  at  this  immediate  present  fer  more  captivating 
error,  is  that  arising  out  of  an  illogical  application  of  the  doc- 
trine of  evolution,  to  whi-ch  recent  investigations  in  material  phi- 
losophy have  lent  an  exaggerated  importance.  In  the  progress  of 
inquiry  perverted  intellectual  pride  has  stepped  in  to  suggest  that 
man's  own  greatness  is  enhanced  by  denying  his  dependence  upon 
a  creating  God,  and  by  ascribing  his  origin  and  his  powers  to  some 
obscure  moving  cause,  out  of  which  his  present  state  and  the 
present  condition  of  other  things  in  their  order  are  emanations. 
Being  persuaded  that  he  is  the  best  teacher  of  revealed  religion 
who  has  sounded  the  depths  of  human  philosophy,  and  that  he 
will  be  the  most  devout  Christian  who  has  learned  the  utter  in- 
sufficiency of  philosophy  to  illuminate  his  pathway  through  the 
unknown,    the    Church    through  its    ministers  has   not  for    an    instant 


THE  RECEPTION.  61 

avoided  the  challenge  to  enter  the  field  of  historic  and  philosophic 
inquiry,  and  to  invite  and  stimulate  its  laity  to  do  the  same. 
^o  matter  how  far  the  telescope  of  the  astromoraer  may  penetrate ; 
no  matter  how  many  immeasurable  worlds  may  be  proved  to  exist 
"beyond  those  now  dreamed  of,  it  knows  that  God  is  still  there, 
and  the  more  and  more  overwhelming  is  the  necessity  for  His 
presence ;  no  matter  how  minute  and  how  perfect  in  the  de- 
scending scale  the  organisms  which  the  microscope  discloses,  yet 
more  and  more  it  demonstrates  that  only  the  constructive  and  sus- 
taining powers  of  a  divine  Architect  are  capable  of  causing  these 
harmonious  developments.  But  with  or  without  a  law  of  devel- 
opment, reason  must  pause  before  some  final  and  impulsive  point. 
Failino;  at  last  the  intellect  must  turn  to  revelation  for  aid.  And 
then  steps  forward  the  Church,  repeating  to  reason  one  of  its  own 
forgotten  truths,  that  the  finite  cannot  measure  the  infinite,  that 
the  less  cannot  prescribe  a  law  to  the  greater.  And  with  reason 
thus  baffled  and  humbled  she  addresses  the  heart :  Can  it  be  an 
indignity  or  a  degradation  to  receive  a  favor  from  one  whom  you 
have  loved,  from  one  whom  you  know  to  be  prompted  by  an  im- 
measurable love  for  yourself?  Behold  if  there  were  the  sting  of 
dependence  in  creation  it  is  taken  away  by  the  brotherhood  of 
redemption ;  and  man  is  lifted  by  gratuitous  aid  to  an  immortal 
rank  far  higher  than  the  wildest  dreams  of  intellectual  pride  could 
■ever  reach.  The  law  of  love  reconciles  science  with  religion,  man 
with  his  Maker.  I  have  thus  ventured,  on  this  festal  occasion, 
and  although  these  topics  have  been  exhaustively  treated  from  the 
pulpit  by  two  eminent  bishops  during  the  sittings  of  this  council, 
to  refer  to  the  harmony  between  patriotism  and  religion,  and 
between  science  and  revelation,  for  the  especial  purpose  of  em- 
phasizing the  feeling  and  the  conviction  of  the  laity  as  to  the 
true  attitude  of  the  Catholic  clergy  of  America  toward  these  ques- 
tions, so  that  it  may  be  fully  understood  how  well  grounded  are 
the  interest  we  feel  in  the  deliberations  with  which  you,  venerable 
men,  are  now  engaged,  and  our  confident  assurance  that  the  reg- 
ulations which  you  may  formulate  Mill  not  fall  short  of  the 
exigencies  of  the  times,  and  will  tend  to  the  vast  enlargement  of 
your  field  of  wholesome  influence  upon  religion  and  upon  society. 
One  hundred  years  ago  there  were  nineteen  priests  in  Maryland 
and  five  in  Pennsylvania ;    of  these,  four,  through  age  and    infirmity. 


62  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

almost  entirely  unfit  for  any  service.  Oh !  if  that  feeble  and  de- 
voted band  could  have  seen,  as  perhaps  in  the  visions  of  Chris- 
tian confidence  and  hope  they  did  see,  this  vast  gathering  of  arch- 
bishops, bishops  and  mitred  abbots,  what  would  have  been  their 
exultation.  We,  4110  descendants  of  the  men  whom  they  taught 
and  succored,  here  on  the  soil  consecrated  by  their  humble  labors,, 
in  the  enjoyment  of  the  heritage  of  liberty  and  religion  which  we 
have  received,  calling  to  mind  that  past  to  make  us  more  sensible 
of  the  countless  blessings  of  the  present,  again  welcome  you,  ven- 
erable Fathers  and  dear  friends,  to  the  hearts  and  firesides  of  a 
grateful    people. 

When    Judge    Merrick    sat  down    Mr.    O'Brien    said :     "  I    have 

now    the    honor   to    present   to  you  Archbishop  Williams,  of  Boston,, 

who   will    make  the    reply   on  behalf    of    the  prelates."    Archbishop 
Williams    said  : 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen — Your  representatives,  in  their  address  to- 
the  prelates  of  the  third  Plenary  Council  of  Baltimore,  welcome 
them  to  your  hearts  and  to  your  firesides.  We  have  reason  to 
believe  in  the  sincerity  of  this  welcome,  judging  by  the  past,  as  the 
prelates  of  former  councils  have  already  proved  the  whole-souled 
heartedness  of  the  Catholics  of  Baltimore.  We  of  the  present  council 
have  already  proved  it  for  ourselves.  The  open  house  of  your 
respected  and  well-beloved  archbishop ;  of  your  numerous  and  gen- 
erous clergy,  and  of  so  many  of  your  distinguished  laity  have 
already  told  us  that  Baltimore  still  treasures  the  old  traditions,  and 
that  no  matter  how  numerous  may  be  the  members  of  a  council, 
the  Catholics  of  this  city  will  always  have  a  welcome  for  them  in, 
their  hearts  and  at  their  firesides. 

And  we  on  our  side  bring  to  your  city  feelings  diiferent  from 
those  we  should  carry  to  any  other  city  of  this  great  republic. 
Here  we  find  our  Mother  Church.  Here  we  find  the  home  of 
him  Avho,  one  hundred  years  ago,  Avas  appointed  over  the  young 
Church  of  the  United  States,  with  less  than  thirty  thousand  Catholics, 
and  less  than  thirty  priests,  and  to-day  his  illustrious  successor,  in 
his  venerated  Cathedral,  surrounded  by  a  numerous,  pious  and  well- 
educated  clergy,  as  Apostolic  Delegate  presides  over  a  third  Plenary 
Council,  with  thirteen  archbishops,  sixty  bishops,  seven  mitred  abbots, 
Roman    prelates,    thirty-five    superiors     of    religious     orders,    eleven 


Most  Rev.  John  J.    Williams,  DD. 


THE  RECEPTION.  63^ 

heads  of  theological  seminaries,  and  nearly  one  hundred  theologians 
chosen  from  eveiy  portion  of  our  great  country.  Such  a  growth 
in  a  single  century  is  unparalleled ;  and  yet  the  greater  portion  of 
it  has  taken  place  in  the  last  half  century.  The  Catholic  Church 
does  not  look  upon  this  growth  as  one  of  its  glories.  It  is  the 
glory  of  our  country  and  of  its  government  which  has  attracted 
men  from  every  nation  to  our  shores.  Here  they  found  peace  front 
persecution,  deliverance  from  laws  that  oppressed  them.  Here  they 
are  welcome  and  admitted  to  all  the  rights  of  citizenship.  But  the 
glory  of  the  Catholic  Church  in  this  country  is  that  in  the  face  of 
this  wonderful  increase  it  has  not  yet  been  found  wanting.  It  is 
impossible  to  realize  all  that  had  to  be  done  to  meet  the  wants  of 
these  millions  of  Catholics  who  have  poured  into  these  United 
States  during  the  last  fifty  years.  The  priests  to  be  found  or 
ordained,  the  churches  to  be  built,  the  schools,  the  hospitals,  the 
asylums  to  be  provided,  the  dioceses  to  be  erected,  the  ecclesiastical 
provinces  to  be  established,  and  all  this  to  be  done  with  judgment 
and  with  wise  forecast  for  the  future.  But  the  wisdom  and  untiring; 
zeal  of  the  bishops  and  their  clergy,  with  the  continued  and  un- 
limited generosity  of  the  faithful  were  ever  ready  to  meet  whatever 
was  necessary;  and  the  success  of  their  united  efforts  is  as  Avonderful 
as  the  increase  which  called  them  forth.  But  why  do  I  recite 
these  events?  Because  in  Baltimore  this  work  of  the  Church  began,. 
in  Baltimore  it  was  carried  out.  In  the  Councils  of  Baltimore^ 
under  the  leadership  of  your  noble  archbishops  and  the  guidance 
of  the  Holy  See,  have  been  framed  those  wise  regulations  which 
have  directed  the  young  Church  of  America  and  enabled  her  to 
carry  out   successfully    her    difficult    mission. 

Well  may  you  cherish  your  venerable  Cathedral  of  Baltimore. 
Other  cathedrals  larger  and  more  costly  may  be  built,  but  this 
Mother  Church  has  memories  and  glories  which  can  never  belong 
to  another.  Here  was  the  scene  of  the  labors  of  those  old 
champions  of  the  early  Church;  here  their  voices  resounded  in 
times  gone  by,  and  filled  her  dome  with  the  power  of  their 
eloquence.  These  champions  are  nearly  all  gone.  But  to  our  joy, 
one  of  them  has  returned  again  to  Baltimore  to  speak  to  us  the 
traditions  of  glorious  days,  and  aid  us  by  his  wisdom  and  ex- 
perience. Although  advanced  in  years  he  has  still  all  his  mental 
vigor   and   physical  vitality.     Another  there   is,  who  is  with  us  only 


64  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

in  spirit,  our  Cardinal  Prince.  His  presence  here  would  have  made 
our  joy  complete, — and  how  fittingly,  how  gracefully,  how  eloquently 
he  Avould  answered  your  address  and  expressed  the  satisfaction 
of  the  prelates  of  this  council  at  the  reception  you  have  given 
them  this  evening.  In  conclusion,  allow  me  to  recall  one  more 
reason  why  all  Catholics,  and  indeed  all  lovers  of  their  country, 
should  cherish  the  name  of  fair  Maryland.  It  is  tlie  memory  of 
that  noble  inheritence  left  you  by  your  fathers  who,  having  left 
England  to  find  peace  in  the  exercise  of  their  religion,  and  having 
come  to  these  shores,  not  only  left,  but  established  as  far  as  lay 
in   their   power,  what   here    they   found — -freedom  to  worship  God. 


CONGRATULATING  THE  APOSTOLIC  DELEGATE. 


AFTER  the  signing  of  the  decrees  at  the  last  public  session  of 
the  third  Plenary  Council,  Sunday,  December  7,  1884,  the  Most 
Hev.  Peter  R.  Kenrick,  of  St.  Louis,  who  is  the  senior  arch- 
bishop of  the  hierarchy,  advanced  to  the  foot  of  the  altar,  and, 
half  facing  the  Apostolic  Delegate,  thanked  him  for  the  able  manner 
in  which  he  had  presided  over  the  deliberations  of  the  council, 
and  the  clergy  and  laity  of  Baltimore  for  their  hospitality,  which 
he  said  the  members  would  always  remember  M-ith  feelings  of  pride 
and  happiness.  Of  the  work  of  the  council  he  said  it  would  be 
sure  to  be  followed  with  beneficial  results.  "  More  than  a  half 
•century,"  continued  the  venerable  speaker,  "  has  passed  since  the 
first  Plenary  Council,  when  I  stood  beneath  the  dome  of  this 
•cathedral  a  silent  spectator  of  the  deliberations  of  that  body.  I 
had  never  seen  a  more  sublime  sight.  It  was  not  this  grand  old 
building,  nor  the  gorgeous  vestments,  nor  the  dulcet  strains  of  the 
music  which  seemed  to  come  from  heaven  that  inspired  me ;  it 
was  that  assemblage  of  men,  from  all  parts  of  the  country,  with 
different  ideas  and  sentiments,  but  with  one  common  end  in  view — 
the  good  of  our  Church."  The  archbishop  spoke  with  great  emo- 
tion when  he  referred  to  the  pleasant  memories  of  the  two  former 
Plenary  Councils,  of  both  of  which  he  was  a  member.  He  is  now 
over    seventy-seven    years. 

When  he  had  resumed  his  scat  Archbishop  Gibbons,  moving 
to  the  edge  of  the  platform,  replied  to  the  address  of  the  Arch- 
bishop   of   St.    Louis,    saying : 

I  cannot  sufficiently  express  the  thanks  I  feel.  Most  Reverend, 
Right  Reverend  and  Reverend  Fathers,  for  the  sentiments  uttered 
by  your  venerated  representative,  the  Most  Rev.  Archbishop  of 
St.  Louis.  Whatever  success  has  attended  my  part  of  the  work 
I    attribute,    under    God,    to    your    kind    forbearance    and    unfailing 

E  (65) 


66  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

benevolonce    towards    me.     Mindful    of    the    words    of    the    Apostle, 
you    have    not    despised    my    youth. 

I  have  witnessed  the  proceedings  of  the  greatest  deliberative 
bodies  in  the  Avorld — I  liavc  listened  to  debates  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  the  French  Chambers  and  both  Houses  of  Congress ; 
I  have  attended  provincial,  national  and  ecumenical  councils — but 
never  did  I  Avitnes.5  more  order  or  decorum,  more  earnest  debates 
joined  with  unfailing  courtesy ;  never  did  I  witness  a  more  hearty 
acquiescence  in  the  voice  of  the  majority  than  in  the  third  Plenary 
Council  of  Baltimore.  Venerable  Fathers,  we  have  met  as  bishops 
of  a  common  faith ;  we  part  as  brothers  bound  by  the  closest  ties 
of  charity.  We  have  met,  many  of  us  strangers  to  one  another  ;  we 
part  as  dearest  friends.  Though  diifering  in  nationality,  in  language, 
in  habits,  in  tastes,  in  local  interests  as  was  said  to-day  by  the 
eloquent  Bishop  of  Peoria,  Ave  met  as  members  of  the  same  im- 
mortal episcopate,  having  one  Lord,  one  faith,  one  baptism,  one 
God  and  Father  of  all.  And  if  the  Holy  Father,  whose  portrait 
adorns  our  council  chamber,  could  speak  from  the  canvass,  well 
could  he  exclaim  :  "  Behold  how  good  and  how  pleasant  a  thing  it  is 
for  brethren  to  dwell  together  in  unity."  The  words  you  have  spoken 
in  council,  like  good  seed,  are  yet  hidden  from  the  eyes  of  man, 
but  they  will  one  day  rise  and  bring  forth  fruit  of  sanctification. 
The  decrees  you  have  formulated  will  one  day  resound  throughout 
the  length  and  breadth  of  the  land.  They  will  foster  discipline 
and  piety ;  they  will  quicken  the  faith  and  cheer  the  hearts  of 
millions    of   Catholics. 

The  joy  with  which  we  welcomed  you  to  Baltimore,  venerable 
Fathers,  is  equalled  only  by  the  sorrow  we  feel  at  your  departure. 
The  clergy  and  people  of  this  city,  whose  honored  guests  you 
were,  have  cherished  you  with  all  the  filial  affection  and  reverence 
which  the  faithful  of  Ephesus  had  for  the  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles, 
and  their  regret  at  your  departure  is  as  sincere  as  was  that  of 
the  Christians  of  Ephesus  at  the  departure  ,  of  their  beloved 
Apostle.  They  will  follow  you  with  their  prayers  and  best  wishes 
for  your  safe  return  and  a  long  life  of  usefulness  in  your 
respective    dioceses. 

This  is  tlie  last  time  tliat  we  sliall  assemble  again  under  the 
dome  of  this  venerable  cathedral,  with  the  portraits  of  God's  saints 
looking   down   upon  us,    as  the   venerable    archbishop    has    said.     He 


CONGRATULATING   THE  APOSTOLIC  DELEGATE.  67 

has  reminded  us  of  our  short  tenure  of  life.  But  we  are  immortal. 
God  grant  that  the  scene  of  to-day  may  be  a  presage  of  our 
future  reunion  in  the  temple  above  not  made  with  hands,  in  the 
company  of  God's  living  saints,  where,  clothed  in  white  robes  and 
palms  in  our  hands,  we  shall  sing  benediction,  and  honor,  and 
glory    to    our    God    forever. 


THE  ACCLAMATIONS. 


AT  the  close  of  the  council,  it  is  usual  for  the  Fathers  to  chant, 
in  alternate  choirs,  certain  Acclamations,  which  are  at  once  a 
profession  of  their  faith  in  the  Church,  of  their  good  will  toward 
their  brethren,  and  of  their  best  wishes  for  the  peace  and  pros- 
perity of  the  country  and  the  welfare  of  their  fellow-citizens.  The 
following  was  the  wording  of  these  Acclamations  in  the  third  Plenary 
Council    of   Baltimore : 

Chanter.  To  the  most  Holy  and  Undivided  Trinity,  eternal  glory 
and   thanksgiving ! 

Chorus.  The  Charity  of  the  Father,  the  Grace  of  the  Son,  the 
Communication    of  the    Holy    Ghost,    O    Blessed    Trinity ! 

Chant.  To  the  most  Blessed  Mary,  preserved  from  Original  Sin, 
through  the  foreseen  merits  of  her  Son,  the  bountiful  Patroness 
of  these    United    States,    praise    and    veneration ! 

Chor.  Blessed  be  the  Virgin  Mother  of  God,  conceived  without 
Original  Sin,  who  is  the  Tower  of  Ivory  from  which  are  sus- 
pended a  thousand  shields,   the   entire   armor   of  the   strong ! 

Chant.  To  our  Holy  Pontiff,  Pope  Leo  XIII,  happily  reigning, 
the  visible  Head  of  the  whole  Church,  and  the  true  Vicar  of 
Christ  on   earth,  unfading   prosperity,  eternal   memory ! 

Chor.  May  the  Lord  fulfill  the  petitions  of  our  most  Holy 
Father,  and  may  He  confirm  all  his  judgments  against  the  ene- 
mies of  the  most  beloved  Spouse  of  Christ,  so  that  they  may 
come  to  nought,  like  water  that  floweth  away,  and  may  they  fail 
like   the  smoke   which   vanisheth ! 

Chant.  To  the  most  illustrious  and  most  Eevercnd  Archbishop 
of  Baltimore,  Delegate  of  the  Apostolic  See,  by  whose  labor  and 
exertions  this  Plenary  Council  has  been  assembled,  directed,  and 
brought    to   a   happy    issue,    manifold    graces    with    many    years ! 

Chor.  Manifold  graces  with  many  years !  May  the  Lord  grant 
him  the  reward  of  his  work ;  may  he  receive  an  unfading  crown 
of  glory ! 

(68) 


THE  ACCLAMATIONS.  69 

Chant.  To  the  most  illustrious  and  Rev.  Archbishops  and  Bishops 
who  have  adorned  this  council  by  their  learning  and  wisdom,  a 
happy  return  to  their  flocks,  long  ,  life,  and  all  prosperity  from 
God! 

Ghor.  Everlasting  peace,  the  most  plentiful  benediction  of  the 
Almighty,  and  a  blessed  reward  of  their   labors ! 

Chant.  To  the  Right  Rev.  Abbots,  and  Very  Rev.  Superiors 
of  Religious  Communities,  and  also  to  the  Rev.  Theologians,  who, 
by  their  learning  and  labor,  have  aided  the  prelates  in  the  man- 
agement of  the  work,  increase  of  grace,  eternal  happiness ! 

Chor.  May  the  Lord  grant  them,  according  to  His  goodness, 
every  perfect  gift !  May  the  God  of  wisdom,  and  the  unfading 
Fountain  of  true  light,  illumine  their  minds  with  the  light  of 
heavenly  glory,  cherish  them  by  His  grace,  and  strengthen  them 
in    virtue ! 

Chant.  To  the  Rev.  Clergy  of  these  States,  and  the  whole  flock 
of  Christ,   salvation  and  benediction  from  the   Lord ! 

Chor.  Show  them,  O  Lord,  Thy  ways,  and  direct  them  in  Thy 
truth,  that  they  may  not  forget  the  works  of  the  Most  High,  and 
that  they  may  fulfill  His    Commandments ! 

Chant.  To  our  great  and  cherished  republic,  supreme  peace,  full 
prosperity,  and  the  overflowing  benediction   of  Almighty   God  I 

Chor.  Grant  peace,  O  Lord,  in  our  days,  because  there  is  no 
one  to  fight   for   us   but  Thee,  our   God ! 

Chant.  To  all  the  people  of  these  United  States,  unfailing  peace, 
indissoluble  concord ! 

Chor.  Confirm,  O  God,  what  Thou  has  wrought  in  them,  that 
all  disturbance  being  removed,  Ave  may  freely  serve  Thee  with  one 
heart  and   one   soul ! 

Chant.  To  all  the  faithful  departed,  who  have  gone  before  us 
with  the   sign  of  faith,   and  repose  in  the  sleep   of  peace ! 

Chor.  Eternal  rest  grant  to  them,  O  Lord,  and  may  perpetual 
light   shine   upon   them ! 

Chant.  And  may  we,  as  the  Apostle  commandeth,  obey  our 
prelates,  and  observe  their  commands,  that  with  joy  they  may 
watch  over  us,  as   having  to  render  an  account  of  our   souls ! 

Chor.  So  be  it !    so  be  it !    amen !    amen ! 


MEMBERS  OF  THE  COUNCIL 


APOSTOLIC    DELEGATE. 

Most   Kev.   James   Gibbons,    D.D.,    Archbishop    of  Baltimore. 

CARDINAL     ARCHBISHOP. 

His    Eminence   John  Cardinal    McCloskey,  D.D.,  Archbishop  of  New 
York.     (Absent  through  illness.) 

ARCHBISHOPS. 

Most   Kev.  Joseph  S.  Alemany,  D.D.,  Archbishop  of  San  Francisco. 
Most.    Eev.  INIichael  A.  Corrigan,  D.D.,  Titular  Archbishop   of  Petra 

and  Coadjutor  of  New  York. 
Most    Kev.    William    H.    Elder,    D.D.,    Archbishop    of  Cincinnati. 
Most   Kev.    Patrick   A.    Feehan,    D.D.,    Archbishop    of   Chicago. 
Most   Kev.    Michael   Heiss,    D.D.,    Archbishop   of  Milwaukee. 
Most    Kev.    Peter   K.    Kenrick,    D.D.,    Archbishop    of  St.    Louis. 
Most   Kev.    John    B.    Lamy,    D.D.,    Archbishop    of  Santa    Fe. 
Most    Kev.    Francis    X.    Leray,    D.D.,    Archbishop    of   New    Orleans. 
Most  Kev.  Patrick  W.  Kiordan,  D.D.,  Titular  Archbishop  of  Cabasa 

and  Coadjutor  of  San  Francisco. 
Most   Kev.    Patrick   J.    Kyan,    D.D.,    Archbishop    of  Philadelphia. 
Most     Kev.    John     B.    Salpointe,    Titular     Archbishop     of    Anazanba 

and  Coadjutor  of  Santa  Fe. 
Most    Kev.    Charles    J.    Seghcrs,    D.D.,    Archbishop    of    Oregon    City. 
Most    Kev.    John   J.    Williams,    D.D.,    Archbishop    of  Boston. 

BISHOPS. 

Kight  Kev.  Peter  J.  Baltes,  D.D.,  Bishop  of  Alton.     (Absent  through 

sickness.) 
Kight    Kev.    Thomas    A.    Becker,    D.D.,    Bishop    of  Wilmington. 
Kiglit    Kev.    Caspar    H.    Borgess,    D.D.,    Bishoj)    of  Detroit. 
Kight    Kev.    Dennis    Bradley,    D.D.,    ]5ishop    of  Manchester. 
Kight    Kev.   John    B.    Brondcl,    D.D.,    Bishop    of  Helena. 
Kight    Kev.  Francis    S.    Chatard,    D.D.,    Bishop    of  Vincennes. 

(70) 


MEMBERS  OF  THE  COUNCIL.  71 

Eight   Eev.    John   J.   Conroy,    D.D.,    Titular    Bishop    of  Curium. 

Right    Rev.    Henry    Cosgrove,    D.D.,    Bishop    of  Davenport. 

Right   Rev.  C.    M.    Dubuis,    (Resigned)    Bishop    of  Galveston.     (Ab- 
sent in  France  and  sick.) 

Right    Rev.    Joseph    Dwenger,    D.D.,    Bishop    of  Fort    Wayne. 

Right    Rev.    Louis    M.  Fink,  O.S.B.,  D.D.,  Bishop    of  Leavenworth. 

Right    Rev.    Edward    Fitzgerald,    D.D.,    Bishop    of  Little    Rock. 

Right    Rev.    Kilian    C.    Flasch,    D.D.,    Bishop    of    La    Crosse. 

Right    Rev.    Nicholas  A.  Gallagher,  D.D.,  Titular  Bishop  of  Canopus 
and   Administrator  of  Galveston. 

Right   Rev.    Richard    Gilmour,    D.D.,    Bishop    of  Cleveland. 

Right    Rev.    Louis    De    Goesbriand,    D.D.,    Bishop    of  Burlington. 

Right    Rev.  A.  J.  Glorieux,  D.D.,  Vicar  Apostolic  Elect  of  Idaho. 

Right    Rev.    Thomas    L.    Grace,    D.D.,    Titular    Bishop    of    Mennith. 

Right    Rev.    William    H.    Gross,    D.D,,    Bishop    of    Savannah. 

Right    Rev.    James    A.    Healy,    D.D.,    Bishop    of  Portland. 

Right    Rev.    Thomas    F.    Hendricken,    D.D.,    Bishop    of    Providence. 

Right    Rev.    John    Hennessy,    D.D.,    Bishop    of  Dubuque. 

Right    Rev.    John    J.    Hogan,    D.D.,    Bishop     of    Kansas     City     and 
Administrator  of  St.  Joseph. 

Right   Rev.    John    Ireland,    D.D.,    Bishop    of  St.    Paul. 

Right    Rev.    Francis    Janssens,    D.D.,    Bishop    of  Natchez. 

Right    Rev.   ^gidius    Junger,    D.D.,    Bishop    of    Nesqually. 

Right    Rev.    John    J.    Ivain,    D.D.,    Bishop    of    Wheeling. 

Right    Rev.    John    J.    Keane,    D.D.,    Bishop    of  Richmond. 

Right    Rev.    Francis    X.    Krautbauer,    D.D.,    Bishop    of    Green    Bay. 

Right    Rev.    John    Loughlin,    D.D.,    Bishop    of  Brooklyn. 

Right    Rev.  Joseph  P.  Machebeuf,  D.D.,  Titular    Bishop  of  Epiphany 
and  Vicar  Apostolic  of  Colorado. 

Right    Rev.    Camillus    P.    Maes,    D.D.,    Bishop  Elect    of    Coviugton. 

Right  Rev.  Patrick  Manogue,  D.D.,  Bishop  of  Grass  Valley. 

Right    Rev.    Dominic    Manucy,    D.D.,    Administrator    of   Mobile  and 
Brownsville. 

Right    Rev.    Martin    Marty,  O.S.B.,  D.D.,  Titular  Bishop  of  Tiberias 
and.  Vicar  Apostolic  of  Dakota. 

Right   Rev.    John    Moore,    D.D.,    Bishop    of  St.  Augustine. 

Right   Rev.    Francis     Mora,    D.D.,    Bishop     of     Monterey    and     Los 
Angeles. 

Right    Rev.  Ignatius    Mrak,  D.D.,  Titular  Bishop  of  Antinoe.     (Ab- 
sent through  sickness.) 


72  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

■Right    Rev.    Tobias    Mullen,    D.D.,    Bishop   of  Erie. 

Right    Rev.  "William   G.  McCloskey,  D.D.,  Bishop    of  Louisville, 

Right    Rev.    Lawrence    S.    McMahon,    D.D.,    Bishop    of  Hartford. 

Right    Rev.    Francis    McNeirny,    D.D.,    Bishop    of  Albany. 

Right    Rev.    Bernard    J.    McQiiaid,    D.D.,    Bishop    of  Rochester. 

Right   Rev.    John    C.    Neraz,    D.D.,   Bishop    of    San    Antonio. 

Right   Rev.    Henry    P.    Northrop,    D.D.,    Bishop    of  Charleston. 

Right   Rev.    Eagene    O'Connell,    D.D.,    Titular    Bishop    ofJoppa. 

Right    Rev.    James    O'Connor,   D.D.,    Titular    Bishop    of  Dibona  and 
Vicar  Apostolic  of  Nebraska. 

Right   Rev.    Michael    J.    O'Farrell,    D.D.,    Bishop    of  Trenton. 

Right    Rev.    AVilliam    O'Hara,    D.D.,    Bishop    of  Seranton. 

Right   Rev.    Patrick   T.    O'Reilly,    D.D.,    Bishop    of  Springfield. 

Right    Rev.    Joseph    Rademacher,    D.D.,    Bishop    of  Nashville. 

Right    Rev.    Henry    J.    Richter,    D.D.,    Bishop    of   Grand    Rapids. 

Right     Rev.    Isidore     Robot,     O.S.B.,    Prefect     Apostolic    of    Indian 
Territory. 

Right    Rev.    Stephen  V.  Ryan,    D.D.,  Bishop    of  Buffalo. 

Right    Rev.    Rupert    Seidenbusch,    O.S.B.,    D.D.,    Titular    Bishop    of 
Halia  and  Vicar  Apostolic  of  Northern   Minnesota. 

Right    Rev.    Jeremiah    F.    Shanahan,  D.D.,    Bishop    of  Harrisburg. 

Right   Rev.    John    L.    Spalding,    D.D.,    Bishop    of  Peoria. 

Right    Rev.    John    Tuigg,    D.J).,    Bishop    of   Pittsburg    and    Adminis- 
trator of  Allegheny.      (Absent  through  sickness.) 

Right    Rev.    John   Vertin,    D.D.,    Bishop     of    Marquette    and    Saut 
Ste.  Marie. 

Right    Rev.    Edgar    P.   Wadhams,   D.D.,   Bishop    of  Ogdensburg. 

Right    Rev.    John    A.    Wattcrson,    D.D.,    Bishop    of  Columbus. 

Right    Rev.  Winand    M.    Wiggcr,    D.D.,    Bishop    of  Newark. 

VISITING    PRELATES. 

Most    Rev.    John    J.    Lynch,    D.D.,   Archbishop    of  Toronto,  Canada. 
Most    Rev.    Cornelius    O'Brien,    D.D.,    Archbishop   of  Halifax. 
Right   Rev.    James    J.   Carbery,  D.D.,  Bishop    of  Hamilton,  Ontario. 
Right    Rev.    J.    V.    Cleary,    D.D.,    Bishop    of  Kingston,    Ontario. 
Right   Rev.    Joseph    T.    Duhamel,    D.D.,  Bishop    of  Ottawa,  Ontario. 
Right    Rev.    T.  T.    O'Mahony,  D.D.,    Coadjutor    Bishop    of    Toronto, 

Canada. 
Right    Rev.    J.    Osouf,    D.D,.   Vicar  Apostolic  of  Northern    Japan. 
Right   Rev.    John    Walsh,    D.D.,    Bishop    of  London,    Canada. 


MEMBERS  OF  THE  COUNCIL.  73 

PROCURATOES. 

Very    Rev.    E.    H.    Brandts,    Administrator    of  Covington. 

Very  Rev.  John  N.  Lemmens,  Procurator  of  the  Administrator  of 
Vancouver's    Island. 

Very  Rev.  R.  Phelan,  V.G.,  Procurator  of  the  Bishop  of  Pitts- 
burg. 

Very   Rev.  F.   H.  Zabel,  D.D.,  Procurator    of  the   Bishop  of  Alton. 

MITRED     ABBOTS. 

Right  Rev.  Maria  Benedict,  Trappist,  Abbot,  Abbey  of  Our  Lady 
of  La    Trappe,    Gethsemani,    Kentucky 

Right  Rev.  Frowenus  Conrad,  O.S.B.,  Abbot,  New  Engelberg  Ab- 
bey,   Conception,    Missouri. 

Right  Rev.  Alexius  Edelbrock,  O.S.B,,  Abbot,  St.  John's  Abbey, 
College ville,    Minnesota. 

Right  Rev.  Fintan  Mundwiler,  O.S.B.,  Abbot,  St.  Meinrad's  Abbey, 
Indiana. 

Right  Rev.  Boniface  AVimmer,  O.S.B. ,  Archabbot  of  St.  Vincent's 
Abbey,  Pa.,  and  President  of  the  American  Cassinese  Con- 
gregation. 

Right  Rev.  Innocent  Wolf,  O.S.B.,  Abbot,  Abbey  of  St.  Bene- 
dict,   Atchison,    Kansas. 

DOMESTIC     PRELATES     OF     HIS     HOLINESS. 

Right  Rev.    Patrick   Allen. 

Right  Rev.    Leonard   Bat/.     (Absent.) 

Right  Rev.    Julian    Benoit,  V.G.     (Absent.) 

Right  Rev.    August    Bessonies,  V.G. 

Right  Rev.    James  A.    Corcoran,    D,D. 

Right  Rev.    George    Doane. 

Right  Rev.    Thomas    Preston,  V.G.,  LL.D. 

Right  Rev.    William    Quinn,  V.G. 

Right  Rev.    Robert    Seton,    D.D.,    Apostolic    Protho- 
notary. 

PRIVATE     CHAMBERLAINS    OF     HIS     HOLINESS. 

Very  Rev.   Henry   Cliiver,   D.D. 
Very  Rev.   John    ]\r.    Farley. 
Very  Rev.   John    Sullivan,   V.G. 


74  THE   THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

SUPERIORS     OF     RELIGIOUS     ORDERS. 

Very    Rev.    A.    Aigueperse,    S.P.M. 

Very    Rev.    ]\I.    Albcrick,    Trappist,    Superior    of    Kew 

Melleray   Abbey,    Dubuque,    Iowa. 
Very   Rev.    John    B.    Bigot,    S.M. 
Very    Rev.    Leopold    Bushart,    S.J. 
Very   Rev.    Theobald    Butler,    S.J. 
Very    Rev.    Joseph    Cataldo,    S.J. 
Very    Rev.    Nicholas    Congiato,    S.J.      (Absent.) 
Very    Rev.    Henry    Drees,    C.P.P.S. 
Very   Rev.    Hyacinth    Epp,    O.M.Cap. 
Very    Rev.    Cyrille    Fournier,    C.S.V. 
Very   Rev.    Bonaventure    Frey,    O.M.Cap. 
Very    Rev.    Robert    Fulton,    S.J. 
Very    Rev.    Aloysius    M.    Gentile,    S.J. 
Very   Rev.    Lucas    Gottbehoede,    O.S.F. 
Very   Rev.    Vincent    Halbfass,   O.S.F. 

Isaac    T.    Hecker,    C.S.P. 

Alfred    Leeson,    S.   St.   J. 

Joseph    Lesen,    O.M.C.,    D.D. 

John    J.    Lessmann,    S.J. 

Michael    D.    Lilly,    O.P. 

William    Loewekamp,    C.SS.R. 

A.    Mandine,    CM. 

Pius   R.    Mayer,    O.C.C. 

Augustine    Morini,    O.S. 

C.    A.    McEvoy,    O.S.A. 

James    McGrath,    O.M.I. 

Theophilus    Pospisilik,    O.S.F. 

John    N.    Reinbolt,    S.  Fr.  M. 

Damasus    Ruesing,    O.S.F. 

Elias    F.    Schaner,    C.SS.R. 

Thomas    Smith,    CM. 

E.    Sorin,    CS.C 

Thomas    Steffanini,    CP. 

James    Strub,    CS.Sp. 

Francis    S.  Vilarrassa,    O.P.     (Absent.) 


Very 

Rev. 

Very 

Rev. 

Very 

Rev. 

Very 

Rev. 

Very 

Rev. 

Very 

Rev. 

Very 

Rev. 

Very 

Rev. 

Very 

Rev. 

Very 

Rev. 

Very 

Rev. 

Very 

Rev. 

Very 

Rev. 

Very 

Rev. 

Very 

Rev. 

Very 

Rev. 

Very 

Rev. 

Very 

Rev. 

Very 

Rev. 

Very 

Rev. 

MEMBERS  OF  THE  COUNCIL.  '  75 

SUPERIORS     OF    THEOLOGICAL    SEMINARIES. 

"Very  Eev.  William   Byrne,  V.G.,  D.D.,   Superior  of  Mt.  St.  Mary's 

Seminary,    Emmitsburg. 
^ery    Rev.    Patrick  V.    Cavauagh,   CM.,   Superior    of  the    Seminary 

of  Our    Lady  of    the   Angels,   BuiFalo 
Very    Rev.     James     Corrigan,    Superior     of     the    Seminary    of    the 

Immaculate    Conception,   Newark. 
Very  Rev.  Henry  Gabriels,  D.D.,  Superior  of  St.  Joseph's  Sulpician 

Seminary,    Troy. 
Very  Rev.  J.  W.  Hickey,  CM.,  Superior  of  St.  Vincent's  Seminary, 

Cape   Girardeau. 
Very    Rev.    John    B.    Hogan,    S.S.,    D.D.,    Superior    of    St.   John's 

Sulpician    Seminary,    Brighton,    Boston. 
Very   Rev.   William    Kieran,     D.D.,    Superior    of    the    Seminary    of 

St.  Charles    Borromeo,   Overbrook,   Philadelphia. 
Very  Rev.  Alphousus  Magnien,  S.S.,  D.D.,  Superior    of  the  Seminary 

of  St.  Sulpice,   Baltimore. 
Very    Rev.    Nicholas    A.    Moes,    Superior    of  St.    Mary's    Seminary, 

Cleveland. 
Very    Rev.    George     McCloskey,   V.G.,    Superior    of    Preston    Park 

Seminary,   Louisville.     (Absent,) 
Very   Rev.    Theophile    Pospisilik,  O.S.F.,  Superior    of   the    Seminary 

of  St.  Bonaventure,  Buifalo. 
Very   Rev.    Augustine    Zeininger,    Superior    of    the    Seminary   of   St. 

Francis    of    Sales,   Milwaukee. 

THEOLOGIANS. 

Rev.  P.   M.  Abbelen,   for  the  Archbisbop  of  Milwaukee. 

Rev.   John    C   Albrinck,  for   the   Archbishop   of   Cincinnati. 

Very  Rev.   John    E.   Barry,  V.G.   for  the   Bishop  of  Manchester. 

Rev.  Ferdinand   Bergmeyer,  O.S.F.,   for  the   Bishop   of  Vincennes. 

Rev.   Thomas   Bonacum,   for  the  Archbishop   of  St.   Louis. 

Rev.   Henry    A.   Brann,   D.D.,   for  the   Coadjutor   Archbishop  of  San 

Francisco. 
Rev.    Thomas    M.  A.    Burke,   for   the   Bishop   of  Little   Rock. 
Rev.   Richard    L.   Burtscll,   D.D.,    for    the    Bishop    of  St.   Augustine. 
Rev.    Thomas    S.   Byrne,   for  the  Archbishop   of  Cincinnati. 
Very  Rev.   Edward   Cafferty,  V.G.,   for  the   Bishop   of  Savannah. 
Rev.   Nicholas   Cantwell,   for  the  Archbishop   of  Philadelphia. 


76  '  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

Very  Rev.   Thomas  Casey,  V.G.,   for  the   Bisliop  of  Erie. 

Rev.   William    F.   Clarke,   S.J.,  for   the   Administrator    of  Galveston. 

Very  Rev.  P.   J.  Conway,   V.G.,  for  the  Archbishop   of  Chicago. 

Right  Rev.  J.  A.  Corcoran,  D.D.,  for  the  Archbishop  of  Philadelphia. 

Rev.   Alfred   A.   Curtis,   for    the   Archbishop   of  Oregon    City. 

Very    Rev.   Leo   Da    Sarracena,   O.S.F.,   for  the  Bishop    of  Hartford. 

Rev.  Isidore  Daubresse,  S.J.,  for  the   Coadjutoi*  Archbishop   of  New 

York. 
Rev.    Emil    De    Augustinis,    S.J.,   for  the   Apositolic    Delegate. 
Rev.   Januarius    De    Concilio,    for    the  Vicar   Apostolic   of  Nebraska. 
Rev.   Edmund    Didier,    for   the   Titular   Bishop   of  Joppa. 
Right  Rev.  Geo.  H.  Doane,  for  the  Coadjutor  Archbishop  of  Santa  Fe. 
Rev.    Robert    Doman,   for   the   Bishop   of  Detroit. 
Rev.   Francis   S.   Dumont,    S.S.,   for   the   Bishop  of  Richmond. 
Rev.   E.    Durier,   for  the  Archbishop   of  New   Orleans. 
Rev.  Edward  R.  Dyer,  S.S.,  D.D.,  for  the  Vicar  A.postolic  of  Colorada.. 
Rev.   John   T.   Gaitley,   for   the   Bishop   of  Nesqually. 
Rev.    Joseph    Giustiniani,   CM.,    for    the    Bishop    of    Monterey    and 

Los   Angeles. 
Rev.   Charles    Goldsmith,    S.T.B.,  for  the   Bishop  of  La   Crosse. 
Rev.   F.    Goller,   for  the   Archbishop   of  St.   Louis. 
Rev.  Thomas    Griffin,  for  the  Bishop    of  Springfield. 
Rev.  Matthew  Harkins,  for  the  Archbishop  of  Boston. 
Rev.  A.  V.  Higgins,  O.P.,  S.T.M.,  for  the  Bishop  of  Columbus. 
Rev.  J.  B.  Hogan,   S.S.,  D.D.,  for   the   Archbishop   of  Boston. 
Very   Rev.  Michael   Hurley,  V.G.,   for  the  Bishop  of  Peoria. 
Very  Rev.  Frederick  Katzer,  V.G.,  for  the   Bishop  of  Green  Bay. 
Rev.  Benjamin  J.  Keiley,  Ph.D.,  for  the   Bishop   of  Wilmington. 
Rev.  Jas.  T.  Keogh,  for  the   Archbishop  of  Milwaukee. 
Rev.  Henry  F.  Ivinnerny,  for  the   Bishop   of  Providence. 
Rev.  Thomas   S.  Lee,   for  the  Archbishop  of  New  Orleans. 
Very  Rev.  Christopher  Linnenkamp,  V.G.,  for   the  Bishop  of  Kansas 

City. 
Rev.  Bernard  Locnikar,  O.S.B.,  for  the  Vicar  Apostolic  of  Northern 

Minnesota. 
Very  Rev.   P.   A.  Luddcn,  V.G.,   for  the   Bishop  of  Albany. 
Very  Rev.   Dwight    E.  Lyman,  V.F.,  for  the  Bishop  of  Helena. 
Very  Rev.  Thomas  Lynch,  V.G.,  for  the   Bishop   of  Burlington. 
Rev.   James  F.  Mackin,  for  tlie  Archbishop  of  Oregon  City. 


MEMBERS  OF  THE  COUNCIL.  77 

Very  Eev.  Alphonsus  Magnien,  S.S.,  D.D.,  for  the  Apostolic  Dele- 
gate. 

Very   Eev.  Edward  McColgan,  V.G.,  for  the  Aj)Ostolic  Delegate. 

Eev.  James   McGolrick,  for  the   Bishop  of  St.  Paul. 

Eev.   Bernard  J.  McManus,  for  the   Bishop   of  Harrisburg. 

Very   Eev.  James   T.  ]\IcManus,  V.G.,   for  the  Bishop  of   Eochester. 

Eev.  John  McQuirk,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  for  the  Titular  Bishop  of  Curium. 

Eev.  Michael  C.  O'Brien,  for  the  Bishop  of  Portland. 

Eev.  Joseph   P.   O'Connell,  D.D.,  for  the   Bishop   of  Brooklyn. 

Eev.   James   O'Eeilly,  for  the  Bishop   of  Leavenworth. 

Eev.   H.   Peflerkorn,    for   the   Bishop  of  San   Antonio. 

Eev.   Charles    Piccirrillo,   S.J.,   for   the   Bishop   of  Natchez. 

Eight  Eev.  William  Quinn,  Y.G.,  for  the  Coadjutor  Archbishop  of 
New   York. 

Eev.  Peter  A.  Eacicot,  S.J.,  for   the   Archbishop   of  Santa  Fe. 

Eev.  Thomas   Eafter,  for   the   Bishop  of  Grand   Eapids. 

Eev.  Daniel  J.  Eiordan,  for  the  Coadjutor  Archbishop  of  San  Fran- 
cisco. 

Eev.  William  Eobbers,  for  the   Bishop   Elect   of  Covington. 

Eev.  Henry  L.   Eobinson,  for  the   Bishop    of  Mobile. 

Eev.  J.  A.  Eochford,   O.P.,   for  the  Archbishop  of  San  Francisco. 

Eev.  George  Euland,   C.SS.E.,  for  the  Archbishop  of  San  Francisco. 

Very  Eev.   Eoger  Eyan,  V.G.,  for  the   Bishop  of  Dubuque. 

Eev.   Aloysius   Sabbetti,   S.J.,  for   the  Archbishop   of  Santa  Fe. 

Eev.   Eichard   Scannell,   for   the   Bishop   of  Nashville. 

Eev.  Emil   Sele,  D.D.,   for   the   Bishop   of  Louisville. 

Very    Eev.  Elias    F.    Schauer,   C.SS.E.,  for    the    Apostolic   Delegate. 

Eev.  Charles  Sigl,  C.SS.E.,  for  the  Prefect  Apostolic  of  Lidian 
Territory 

Very   Eev.   Anthony  Smith,  V.G.,   for   the  Bisliop   of  Trenton. 

Eev.  Sebastian   B.   Smith,  D.D.,  for   the   Bishop   of  Newark. 

Eev.   Joseph   M.  Sorg,   for   the   Bishop   of  Buifalo. 

Eev.  J.   A.   Stephan,  for   the  Vicar  Apostolic   of  Dakota. 

Very  Eev.  John   Sullivan,  V.G.,  for  the   Bishop  of  Wheeling. 

Eev.  T.   P.   Thorpe,   for  the   Bishop   of  Cleveland. 

Eev.   A.    Trevis,  for  the   Bisliop   of  Davenport. 

Very   Eev.  James   Trobec,  for  the   Titular    Bisliop   of  Mennith. 

Eev.  A.  Varsi,   S.J.,  for  the   Bishop  of  Grass  Valley. 

Eev.  John  Waldron,  for  the  Archbishop   of  Chicago. 


78  TH'E  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

Rev.  S.  Wall,  for  the  Vicar  Apostolic  Elect   of  Idaho. 

Very  Rev.  Thomas  Walsh,  V.G.,  for  the   Bishop   of  Ogdensburg;. 

Rev.   E.  P.  Walters,   for  the   Bishop   of  Fort  Wayne. 

Rev.  Francis  X.   Weninger,  S.J.,  D.D.,  for  the  Bishop  of   Marquette- 

and  Sant    Ste.  Marie. 
Rev.   J.  J.  Wedenfeller,  for  the  Bishop  of  Charleston. 
Very  Rev.  Moses  Whitty,  V.G.,  for   the   Bishop   of  Scranton.^ 
Rev.  Wm.    J.  Wiseman,    S.T.L.,    for    the    Coadjutor    Archbishop    of 

Santa  F6. 

PROMOTEES. 

Right    Rev.    Francis    Janssens,    D.D.,    Bishop   of  Natchez. 
Right    Rev.    J.   J.    Kain,    D.D.,    Bishop    of  AVheeling. 

JUDGES     OP     EXCUSES     AND     COMPLAINTS. 

Right  Rev.  Louis  M.  Fink,  O.S.B.,  D.D.,  Bishop  of  Leavenworth. 

Right  Rev.    Louis   De  Goesbriand,    D.D,,    Bisliop    of  Burlington. 

Right  Rev.    John   Loughlin,    D.D.,    Bishop    of   Brooklyn. 

Right  Rev.    William    G.    McCloskey,    D.D.,   Bishop    of  Louisville. 

CHANCELLORS. 

Rev.    George    AV.    Devine. 
Rev.    John    S.    Foley,    D.D. 

SECRETARIES. 

Right    Rev.    James    A.    Corcoran,    D.D. 
Very   Rev.    Henry    Gabriels,    D.D. 
Rev.    Sebastian    G.    Messmer. 
Rev.    D.   J.    O'Connell,    D.D. 

NOTARIES. 

Right   Rev.  Robert     Seton,    D.D.,    Prothonotary  Apos- 
tolic. 

Very   Rev.  P.    L.    Chapelle,    D.D. 

Very   Rev.  John    INI.    Farley. 

Very    Rev.  Nicholas    A.    Mocs. 

Very   Rev.  P.    A.   Stanton,   O.S.A.,    D.D. 

1  Towards  the  last  his  place  was  taken  by  Rev.  Thomas  F.  Coffee. 


m.  Rfv.  R    (fConrtfll,  D.D. 


I!f.  tl(V.  H.  Sdon,  n.n. 


Rev.  James  McValleTi,  S.S. 


Very  Rev.  A.  Morini,  0.f>\ 


Rt.  Rev.  .Jas.  A.  Corcoran,  D.D. 


Rev.  'J'/iof:.  Bonaonn. 


RfV.  s.  0.  Messmer. 


Rt.  Hex.  A.  J.  Qhrie^ix,  D.D. 


Very  Rev.  N.  A.  Aloes. 


MEMBERS  OF  THE  COUNCIL.  79 

Very    Eev.    John   Sullivan,    V.G. 

Very    Rev.    Frederick    Wayrich,    C.SS.R. 

Eev.    P.    M.    Abbelen. 

Rev.    J.    L.    Anclreis. 

Rev.    Charles    P.    Grannan,    D.D. 

Eev.    Matthew   Harkins. 

Rev.    Henry    Moeller,  D.D. 

Eev.    Sebastian    B.   Smith,    D.D. 

MASTERS    OF    CEREMONY. 

Eev.    Thomas    Broyderick. 

Rev.    Michael    Kelly. 

Eev.    James    McCallan,    S.S. 

CHANTERS. 

Eev.  Gabriel    Andre,   S.S. 

Eev.  'William    E.   Bartlett., 

Eev.  Joseph    Cassidy. 

Eev.  John    B.    Drennan. 

Eev.  Anthony    Lammel. 

Eev.  John   Marr. 

Eev.  Joseph    O'Keefe. 


DECEASED  PRELATES  OF  THE  LAST  COUNCIL. 


ARCHBISHOPS. 


Most  Rev.  James  Roosevelt  Bayley,  D.D.,  Archbishop  of  Baltimore. 
Most  Rev.    Francis    Norbert    Blanchet,   D.D.,   Archbisliop    of  Oregon 

City. 
Most   Rev.  John   Martin   Henni,  D.D.,  Archbishop   of  Milwaukee. 
Most   Rev.  J.  M.  Odin,  D.D.,  Archbishop   of  New  Orleans. 
Most  Rev.   Napoleon    J.   Perche,  D.D.,  Archbishop    of  New  Orleans. 
Most   Rev.   John   Baptist   Purcell,   D.D.,   Archbishop   of  Cincinnati. 
Most    Rev.    Martin    John    Spalding,    D.D.,    Apostolic    Delegate    and 

Archbishop    of  Baltimore. 
Most  Rev.  James  Frederic  Wood,   D.D.,  Archbishop  of  Philadelphia. 


BISHOPS. 

ght  Rev.  Thaddeus   Amat,  D.D.,   Bishop   of  Monteray. 

ght  Rev.   David  W.   Bacon,  D.D.,    Bishop   of  Portland. 

ght   Rev.   Frederic  Baraga,   D.D.,   Bishop  of  Marquette. 

ght   Rev.   George   Aloysius  Carroll,   D.D.,   Bishop   of  Covington. 

ght  Rev.  Modeste   Demers,  D.D.,  Bishop   of  Vancouver's  Island. 

ght  Rev.  M.  Domenec,    D.D.,    Bishop   of  Pittsburg. 

ght  Rev.  Henry   Damian   Juneker,   D.D.,   Bishop   of  Alton. 

ght  Rev.   Peter  Joseph  Lavialle,   D.D.,   Bishop   of  Louisville. 

ght  Rev.  Peter   Paul   Lefevre,  Bishop   of  Detroit. 

ght  Rev.  J.  H.  Luers,  D.D.,  Bishop  of  Fort  Wayne. 

ght  Rev.  P.  N.   Lynch,  D.D.,   Bishop   of  Charleston. 

ght  Rev.  Augustus  M.  Martin,  D.D.,  Bishop   of  Natchitoches. 

ght  Rev.  F.   P.    ISIcFarland,  D.D.,   Bishop   of  Hartford. 

ght   Rev.  John   IMcGill,   D.D.,   Bisliop   of  Richmond. 

ght   Rev.  James   O'Gorman,   D.D.,  Vicar   Apostolic  of  Nebraska. 

ght  Rev.  Jolm   Quinlan,   D.D.,  Bishop   of  Mobile. 

ght  Rev.  Amadeus   Rappe,  D.D.,  Bishop   of  Cleveland. 

ght  Rev.  S.  H.  Rosecrans,  D.D.,   Bishop   of  Columbus. 

(80) 


DECEASED  PRELATES  OF  THE  LAST  COUNCIL.  81 

Right  Eev.  Maurice  de  St.  Palais,  D.D.,  Bishop  of  Vincennes. 

Right  Rev.  John   Timon,  D.D.,  Bishop   of  Buffalo. 

Right  Rev.  Augustin  Yerot,  D.D.,   Bishop   of  St.  Augustine. 

Right  Rev.  Richard  Vincent  Whelau,   D.D.,  Bishop   of  Wheeling. 

ABSENT    ox    ACCOUNT   OF   ILLNESS : 

Right    Rev.  J.  B.   Miege,  D.D.,  Titular  Bishop  of  Messenia,  and  (re- 
signed) Vicar  Apostolic   of  Nebraska. 

The  following  is  a  list  of  eleven  other  deceased  prelates  who 
had  either  retired  from  active  life  before  the  second  Plenary  Coun- 
cil   or    else    received    episcopal    consecration    after    that    date : 

Right  Rev.  Guy  Ignatius    Chabrat,  D.D.,  Coadjutor  Bishop  of  Bards- 
town,  (now  Louisville.) 
Right  Rev.   Thomas    Foley,  D.D.,  Bishop   of  Chicago. 
Right  Rev.   Thomas   Galberry,  D.D.,   Bishop   of  Hartford. 
Right  Rev.   Celestine   de   la  Hailandiere,  D.D.,  Bishop  of  Vincennes. 
Right  Rev.   Joseph   Melcher,   D.D.,   Bishop  of  Green   Bay. 
Right  Rev.  John   McMullen,  D.D.,  Bishop   of  Davenport. 
Right  Rev.  M.  O'Connor,  D.D.,  Bishop   of  Pittsburg. 
Right  Rev.  Anthony  Dominic  Pellicer,  D.D.,  Bishop  of  San  Antonio. 
Right  Rev.  Frederick   Rese,  D.D.,   Bishop   of  Detroit. 
Right  Rev.  Augustus   M.  Toebbe,  D.D.,  Bishop   of  Covington. 
Right  Rev.  James  Whelan,  D.D.,  Bishop  of  Nashville. 


LIVES  OF  THE  AMERICAN  PRELATES. 


OUTLINE    SKETCHES. 


MOST  REV.  JAMES    GIBBONS,   D.D., 

AECHBISHOP    OF    BALTIMORE    AND   APOSTOLIC    DELEGATE. 


Most  Rev.  James  Gibbons  was  born  in  Baltimore,  July  23, 
1834.  When  very  small  he  was  taken  to  Ireland  by  his  father 
and  there  received  his  first  education.  Entering  St.  Charles'  Col- 
lege, Howard  County,  Md.,  on  his  return,  he  graduated  in  1857. 
From  St.  Charles'  College  he  was  transferred  to  the  Seminary  of 
St.  Sulpice  and  St.  Mary's  University,  and  was  ordained,  June 
30,  1861.  He  was  connected  with  several  churches  in  the  city  of 
Baltimore,  until  the  second  Plenary  Council,  at  which  he  acted  as 
assistant  chancellor;  he  was  named  to  the  Vicariate  Apostolic  of 
North  Carolina,  and  consecrated  titular  Bishop  of  Adramyttura 
Auffust  16,  1868.  He  was  translated  to  the  See  of  Richmond 
July  30,  1872;  and  appointed  coadjutor  to  the  Archbishop  of 
Baltimore  May  20,  1877,  succeeding  to  the  see  October  3,  of  the 
same  year.  He  presided  over  the  third  Plenary  Council  of  Balti- 
more,  November,  1884,  as   the  Apostolic  Delegate  of  the  Holy  See. 


3I0ST  REV.   JOSEPH  S.  ALEMANY,   D.D., 

ARCHBISHOP    OF    SAN     FRANCISCO. 


Most  Rev.  Joseph  S.  Alemany  was  born  in  Yicli,  Spain,  in  the 
year  1814,  and  ordained  in  Yiatebo,  Italy,  in  1837.  In  1840  he 
came    to    America,    settling    first    in    Mississippi.     After    a    term    of 


(82) 


LIVES  OF  THE  A3IERICAN  PRELATES.  83 

mission  work  in  various  States  and  Territories,  he  was  consecrated 
Bishop  of  Monterey  June  30,  1850,  and  translated  to  the  See  of 
San    Francisco    July    29,    1853,    being   its    first    Archbishop. 


MOST  BEV.  IIICHAEL  AUGUSTINE   CORRIGAN,  D.D., 

COADJUTOR     ARCHBISHOP     OF     NEW     YORK. 


Most  Eev.  Michael  A.  Corrigan  was  born  in  Newark,  N.  J., 
August  13,  1839.  He  received  his  classical  education  at  Mount 
St.  Mary's  College,  Emniitsburg,  Md.,  graduating  in  1859.  He 
was  among  the  first  students  in  the  American  College  at  Rome, 
when  he  made  his  theological  course,  being  ordained  September 
19,  1863.  On  his  return  to  America,  he  was  assigned  to  a  pro- 
fessorship at  Seton  Hall  College,  South  Oi'ange,  N.  J.,  being  suc- 
cessively promoted  to  the  vice-presidency  and  presidency.  In  1868 
he  was  appointed  vicar  general  of  the  Diocese  of  Newark.  He 
was  consecrated  Bishop  of  Newark  May  4,  1873;  and  on  October 
1,  1880,  was  promoted  to  the  titular  Archbishopric  of  Petra  and 
coadjutor    to    the    Cardinal   Archbishop    of  New    Yor' 


MOST  REV.    WILLIAM  HENRY  ELDER,  D.B., 

ARCHBISHOP    OF    CINCINNATI. 


Most  Rev.  "William  Henry  Elder  was  born  in  Baltimore,  Md., 
March  22,  1819.  He  received  his  education  at  Mt.  St.  Mary's 
College,  Emmitsburg,  Md.,  and  in  the  Urban  College  of  the  Propa- 
ganda, Rome.  He  was  ordained  in  Rome  March  29,  1846,  and, 
on  his  return  to  this  country,  was  made  director  of  the  Theo- 
logical Seminary  of  Mt.  St.  INIary's  College.  He  was  consecrated 
Bishop  of  Natchez  May  3,  1857;  appointed  titular  Bishop  of 
Avara  and  coadjutor  of  Cincinnati,  cum  jure  successionis,  January 
30,  1880 ;  and  succeeded  to  the  See  of  Cincinnati  on  the  death 
of  Archbishop    Purcell,    July    4,    1883. 


84  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

MOST  REV.   PATRICK  A.   FEEHAN,   D.D.,^ 

ARCHBISHOP     OP     CHICAGO. 


Most  Rev.*  Patrick  A.  Feelian  Avas  born  in  County  Tipperary, 
Ireland,  August  28,  1829.  He  was  educated  at  Maynooth  Semi- 
nary, and  on  coming  to  America  was  ordained  at  St.  Louis, 
November  1,  1852.  After  a  varied  experience  of  mission  work 
and  pastoral  charges,  he  Mas  consecrated  Bishop  of  Nashville, 
Tenn.,  November  12,  1865;  and  was  promoted  to  the  Arch- 
bishopric   of  Chicago,    September    10,   1880. 


3I0ST  REV.   MICHAEL   HEISS,   D.D., 

AECHBISHOP     OF     MILWAUKEE,     WIS. 


Most  Rev.  Michael  Heiss  was  born  April  12,  1818,  at  Pfahl- 
dorf,  Bavaria.  After  a  course  of  theological  training  under  such 
professors  as  Doellinger,  INIoehler  and  Goerres,  he  was  ordained 
October  18,  1840.  In  1842  he  came  to  America,  and  was  at  first 
engaged  in  mission  work  in  Kentucky  and  Ohio.  He  Mcnt  to 
Milwaukee  in  1844  when  that  see  was  created.  From  then  up 
till  1865  he  labored  in  Milwaukee,  founding,  with  the  assistance 
of  Dr.  Joseph  Salzmann,  St.  Francis'  Seminary,  of  which  he  was 
the  first  president.  He  was  consecrated  the  first  Bishop  of  La 
Crosse  September  6,  1868  ;  appointed  coadjutor  of  INIilwaukee  and 
titular  Archbishop  of  Adrianople  March  14,  1880;  and  succeeded 
the  late  lamented  Archbishop  Henni  on  his  death,  September  7, 
1881. 


MOST  REV   PETER   RICHARD   KENRICK,   D.D., 

AECHBISHOP     OF    ST.     LOUIS. 


Most  Rev.  Peter  R.  Kenrick  was  born  in  Dublin,  Ireland,  Au- 
gust 17,  1806.  He  was  ordained  March  6,  1832.  He  came  to 
America   and    settled   in    Philadelphia   in   October,    1833.     After    re- 


Most  Rev.  P.  A.  Feehaii,  D.D. 


LIVES  OF  THE  AMERICAN  PRELATES.  85 

maining  there  eight  years  in  successive  charge  of  several  parishes 
he  was  consecrated  November  30,  1841,  titular  Bishop  of  Drasa 
and  coadjutor  to  Right  Rev.  William  Rosati,  first  Bishop  of  St. 
Louis ;  succeeded  to  the  Bishopric  in  1843 ;  and  was  promoted 
to  Archbishop   in    1847. 


MOST  REV.   JOHN  B.   LAMY,   D.D., 

ARCHBISHOP     OF     SANTA     FE,     N.    M. 


Most  Rev.  John  B.  Lamy  was  born  near  Clermont,  France, 
October  11,  1814.  He  received  his  preliminary  education  at  the 
Seminary  of  Clermont  and  completed  his  theological  studies  at  the 
Seminary  of  Montferrand,  where  he  was  ordained  in  December, 
1838.  He  came  to  America  in  1839,  going  first  to  the  Diocese 
of  Cincinnati,  where  he  labored  for  eleven  years  building  churches 
and  establishing  missions.  He  was  consecrated  Bishop  of  Santa  F^ 
November  24,  1850,  and  arrived  in  his  see  the  following  year.  In 
the  year   1875   he  was   created  Archbishop. 


MOST  REV.  FRANCIS  X.   LERAY,  D.D., 

ARCHBISHOP    OF    NEW    ORLEANS. 


Most  Rev.  Francis  X.  Leray  was  born  at  Rennes,  France, 
April  20,  1825,  where  he  received  his  secular  education.  He  came 
to  America  in  1843,  and  having  studied  for  a  time  in  Yincennes, 
Ind.,  was,  in  1849,  sent  to  St.  Mary's  Seminary,  Baltimore,  where 
he  completed  his  theological  course.  He  was  ordained  at  Natchez, 
Miss.,  March  19,  1852.  In  1853  he  succeeded  the  rector  of  Jack- 
son, Miss.,  who  had  died  of  yellow  fever  during  the  epidemic 
of  that  year.  In  1857  he  was  removed  to  Vicksburg.  He  was 
consecrated  Bishop  of  Natchitoches,  April  22,  1877;  appointed 
coadjutor  of  New  Orleans  and  Bishop  of  Janopolis,  October  23,  1879; 
and  succeeded  the  late  lamented  Archbishop  Perch6  on  his  death 
in    1883. 


86  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

3I0ST  BEV.   PATRICK   W.   BIORDAN,   D.D., 

COADJUTOR     ARCHBISHOP     OF     SAN     FRAXCISCO. 

Most  Rev.  Patrick  W.  Riordau  ^vas  born  in  Chethain,  N.  B., 
August  27,  1841.  He  made  liis  theological  studies  at  the  Lou- 
vain  University,  Belgium,  and  was  ordained  at  Melines,  June  10, 
1865.  On  his  return  to  America  he  went  to  Chicago,  where  he 
was  professor  of  history  and  dogmatic  theology  in  the  Seminary 
of  St.  Mary  of  the  Lake  for  two  years.  He  then  became  the 
pastor  of  Woodstock,  111.;  was  transferred  to  St.  James',  Chicago, 
and  remained  there  until  his  consecration  as  titular  Bishop  of 
Casaba  and  coadjutor  Archbishop  of  San  Francisco,  September  16, 
1883. 


3I0ST  BEV.   P.   J.   BYAN,   D.D., 

ARCHBISHOP     OF    PHILADELPHIA. 


Most  Rev.  P.  J.  Ryan  was  born  at  Thurles,  Ireland,  February 
20,  1831.  He  made  his  classical  and  theological  courses  in  Dublin 
and  in  Carlow  College,  being  ordained  September  8,  1852.  He 
came  to  America  the  same  year,  settling  in  St.  Louis,  where  he 
was  made  professor  of  English  literature  in  Carondelet  Theological 
Seminary.  After  a  varied  experience  in  mission  work  and  pastoral 
charges,  during  which  he  made  two  trips  to  Europe,  he  was  con- 
secrated titular  Bishop  of  Tricomia  and  coadjutor  of  the  Arch- 
bishop of  St.  Louis ;  promoted  to  the  titular  Archbishopric  of 
Salamis  in  1884,  and  was  transferred  to  the  See  of  Philadelphia 
November    11,  1884. 


3I0ST   BEV.    a   J.   SEGHEBS,   D.D., 

ARCHBISHOP     OF     OREGON     CITY. 


Most.  Rev.  C.  J.  Seghers  was  born  in  Client,  Belgium,  Decem- 
ber, 26,  1839.  He  was  educated  at  the  University  of  Louvain 
and    ordained    in   June,    1863,   at    Mechlin.       He    was    first    stationed 


LIVES  OF  THE  AMERICAN  PRELATES.  87 

at  Victoria,  Vancouver's  Island ;  was  con,.ecrated  Bishop  of  Van- 
couver's Island  June  20,  1873;  was  translated  as  coadjutor  to  the 
Archbishop  of  Oregon  City  by  brief  of  December  10,  1878,  and 
succeeded  on  the  retirement  of  Most  Rev.  F.  N.  Blanchet,  Decem- 
ber 12,  1880.  He  has  been  transferred  (1884)  to  Vancouver's 
Island   at   his    own    request. 


HOST  REV.   JOHN  B.    SALPOINTE,    D.D., 

TITULAR    AECHBISHOP    OF    ANAZANBA   AXD    COADJUTOR    OF   THE    ARCH- 
BISHOP   OF    SANTA    FE. 


Most  Rev.  John  B.  Salpointe  was  born  at  St.  Maurice,  France, 
February  22,  1825.  He  received  his  preparatory  education  at  the 
Seminaries  of  Agen  and  of  Clermont-Ferrand,  and  made  his  theo- 
logical course  under  the  Sulpician  priests  at  Montferrand,  where  he 
was  ordained  December  21,  1851.  He  spent  three  years  in  pastoral 
charges  and  five  years  as  professor  in  the  Clermont-Ferrand  Seminary. 
In  August,  1859,  he  came  to  America,  and  devoted  himself  to 
missionary  work  in  the  Diocese  of  Santa  Fe.  He  was  appointed 
Vicar  Apostolic  of  Arizona  in  September,  1868,  and  consecrated 
June  20,  1869,  and  was  promoted  to  be  coadjutor  to  the  Archbishop 
of  Santa  Fe  in  March,  1884,  with  the  title  of  Ai'chbishop  of 
Anazanba. 


MOST  REV.   JOHN  JOSEPH   WILLIAMS,   D.D., 

ARCHBISHOP     OF     BOSTON. 


Most  Rev.  John  J.  Williams  Avas  born  in  Boston,  Mass.,  April 
27,  1822.  He  went  to  the  Sulpician  College,  in  Montreal,  in 
September,  1833,  graduating  in  1841.  After  a  course  in  Seminary 
of  St.  Sulpice,  Paris,  he  was  ordained  there  in  May,  1845.  On  his 
return  to  America  he  was  appointed  assistant  at  the  Boston 
Cathedral,  November  1,  1845;  was  made  rector  in  1855;  took 
charge  of  St.  James'  in  1857,  in  which  latter  post  he  remained 
until  his  appointment  as  coadjutor  Bishop  of  Boston,  January,  1866. 


88  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

He  succeeded  to  the  see  February  13,  1866,  and  was  consecrated 
March  11,  1866.  He  was  promoted  to  the  rank  of  Archbishop 
February   12,    1875. 

RIGHT  REV.   PETER  J.   BALTES,   D.D.,^ 

BISHOP     OF    ALTON,     ILL. 


Right  Rev.  Peter  J.  Baltes  was  born  at  Ensheim,  in  the 
Rhenish  province  of  Bavaria,  Germany,  April  7,  1827.  He  came 
with  his  parents  to  America  in  1833.  His  theological  studies  were 
made  at  the  Sulpician  Seminary,  Montreal,  Canada,  where  he  was 
ordained  May  21,  1853.  His  first  mission  was  at  Waterloo, 
Monroe  county,  111.,  whence  he  was  sent  to  Belleville,  St.  Clair 
county,  in  1855.  He  was  consecrated  Bishop  of  Alton  January 
23,  1870. 


RIGHT  REV.  JOHN'  B.   BRONBEL,  B.D., 

BISHOP     OP     HELENA,     MONTANA. 


Right  Rev.  John  B.  Brondel  was  born  at  Bruges,  Belgium, 
February  23,  1842,  Avhere  he  received  his  secular  education.  He 
made  his  theological  studies  at  Louvain  in  the  American  College, 
and  was  ordined  at  Mechlin,  Belgium,  December  17,  1864.  In 
1866  he  went  to  Washington  Territory,  succeeding  the  rector  of 
Heilacoom  the  following  year.  In  1877  he  was  transferred  to 
Walla  Walla;  returned  to  Heilacoom  in  1878;  and  was  consecrated 
Bishop  of  Vancouver  Island,  at  Victoria,  December  14,  1879.  In 
1883  he  was  appointed  administrator  of  the  Vicariate  Apostolic  of 
Montana,  and  on  March  7,   1884,  became  the  first  Bishop  of  Helena. 


RIGHT  REV.   CASPAR  HENRY  BORGESS,  D.D., 

BISHOP    OF    DETROIT. 


Right   Rev.    Caspar    H.    Borgess    was    born    at    Addrup,    in   the 
Grand   Duchy   of  Oldenburg,    Germany,    August    1,    1826.      Coming 

1  Bishop  Baltes,  on  account   of  illness,  did  not  attend  the  Council,  but  was  represented 
by  a  procurator. 


LIVES  OF  THE  AMERICAN  PRELATES.  89 

to  America  in  1834,  he  made  his  classical  and  philosophical  studies 
in  Philadelphia  and  at  St.  Charles'  Seminary.  He  finished  his 
education  at  St.  Xavier's  College,  Cincinnati,  where  he  was  ordained 
December  8,  1848.  For  ten  years  he  was  stationed  at  Colum- 
bus, O.,  being  appointed  in  May,  1859,  as  rector  of  St.  Peter's 
Cathedral,  Cincinnati,  where  he  remained  until  his  promotion  to 
the  See  of  Detroit.  He  was  consecrated  titular  Bishop  of  Cali- 
donia  and  coadjutor  April  24,  1870,  and  succeeded  to  the  Bishopric 
of  Detroit   December    31,   1871. 


BIGHT  BEV.    TH03IAS  A.  BECKEB,   D.D., 

BISHOP     OF     W^LMINGTOX,     DEL. 


Right  Rev.  Thomas  A.  Becker  was  born  in  Pittsburg,  Pa., 
December  30,  1832.  He  made  his  studies  at  the  Proj^aganda  Col- 
lege, Rome,  being  ordained  in  that  city  June  18,  1859,  On  his 
return  to  America  he  was  assigned  to  Richmond,  Va.,  whence  he 
was  sent  to  Martinsburg  and  Berkeley  Springs ;  returning  to  Bal- 
timore at  the  end  of  the  late  war,  he  was  stationed  at  St.  Peter's 
Church,  and  afterwards  became  professor  of  theology,  ecclesiastical 
history  and  Sacred  Scriptures  in  Mt.  St.  Mary's  College,  Emmits- 
burg.  He  acted  as  one  of  the  chief  secretaries  of  the  second 
Plenary  Council,  being  stationed  at  the  Cathedral  when  it  assem- 
bled. Afterwards  Dr.  Becker  Avas  at  the  Richmond  Cathedral  until 
his  appointment  in  March,  1868,  to  the  new  Diocese  of  Wilmington, 
for  which  he  was  consecrated  in  the  Baltimore  Cathedral  August 
16,  1868. 


BIGHT  BEV.   DENNIS  BBADLEY,   D.D., 

BISHOP    OP    MANCHESTER,     N.    H. 


Right  Rev.  Dennis  Bradley  was  born  in  Ireland  February  25, 
1846,  and  was  brought  to  Manchester,  N.  H.,  when  a  small  boy 
(1854.)  Having  received  his  secular  education  in  that  city,  and 
made  his    classical   studies  at   Holy  Cross  College,  AVorcester,  Mass., 


'90  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

he  entered  St.  Joseph's  Provincial  Seminary,  Troy,  N.  Y.,  in  1867, 
and  was  ordained  there  June  3,  1871.  Immediately  afterwards  he 
was  assigned  to  the  Cathedral  at  Portland,  Me.,  where  he  re- 
mained for  nine  years,  fdling  the  offices  of  chancellor  of  the 
diocese  and  rector  of  the  Cathedral.  He  was  appointed  pastor  of 
St.  Joseph's  Church,  Manchester,  N.  H.,  in  June,  1880,  being  con- 
secrated bishop  in  the  same  church,  which  is  now  his  Cathedral, 
June  11,  1884. 

BIGHT   REV.   FRANCIS  SILAS   CHATARD,   D.D., 

BISHOP    OF    VINCENNES,     IND. 


Right  Rev.  Francis  S.  Chatard  was  born  in  Baltimore,  Md., 
December  13,  1834.  He  was  educated  at  Mt.  St.  Mary's  College, 
Emmitsburg,  Md.,  and  was  ordained  at  the  Trinity  ordination  at 
Rome  in  the  year  1862.  He  was  successively  vice-rector  and  rec- 
tor of  the  American  College  in  Rome.  He  was  consecrated  Bishop 
of  Vincennes   May  12,  1878. 


RIGHT  REV.   HENRY  COSGROVE,  D.D., 

BISHOP     OF    DAVENPORT,     IOWA. 


Right  Rev.  Henry  Cosgrove  was  born  at  Williamsport,  Pa., 
December  19,  1834.  He  received  his  education  at  St.  Mary's 
Seminary,  and  was  ordained  August  27,  1857.  He  was  first  aj)- 
pointed  to  St.  Margaret's  Church,  Davenport,  Iowa,  and  after  a 
long  experience  of  mission  and  pastoral  work,  was  consecrated 
Bishop   of  Davenport   September    14,    1884. 


RIGHT  REV.   JOHN  JOSEPH  CONROY,  D.D., 

TITULAR    BISHOP    OF    CURIUM. 


Right  Rev.  John  J.  Conroy  was  born  at  Greagafulla,  Queen's 
County,  Ireland.  He  came  to  America,  settling  in  New  York,  in 
1832.     He  made    his    classical,   philosophical    and   theological    studies 


LIVES  OF  THE  AMERICAN  PRELATES.  91 

at  the  College  of  St.  Sulpicc,  Montreal,  and  at  Mt.  St.  Mary's 
College,  Emmitsburg,  Md.,  being  ordained  at  Fordham,  N.  Y., 
May  21,  1842.  He  remained  at  St.  John's  College,  in  that  place, 
until  March,  1844,  when  he  was  appointed  pastor  of  St.  Joseph's, 
Albany.  He  was  designated  Bishop  of  Albany  July  7,  1865,  and 
consecrated  October  15,  of  the  same  year.  Having  resigned  Octo- 
ber 16,  1877,  he  was  transferred  to  the  titular  See  of  Curium, 
March    22,    1878. 


BIGHT  REV.  JOSEPH  DWENGEB,   D.D., 

BISnOP     OF     FORT     WAYNE. 


Eight  Eev.  Joseph  Dweuger  was  born  in  the  State  of  Ohio 
in  1837.  He  entered  at  an  early  age  the  Congregation  of  the 
Precious  Blood ;  completed  his  studies  at  Mt.  St.  Mary's  of  the 
West,  Cincinnati,  and  was  ordained,  with  papal  dispensation,  Sep- 
tember 4,  1859.  He  was  engaged  in  teaching  till  1862;  for  six 
years  in  pastoral  work;  and  from  1868  to  1872  devoted  himself 
exclusively  to  preaching  missions  and  giving  retreats.  He  was 
nominated  Bishop  of  Fort  Wayne  February  10,  1871,  and  con- 
secrated April   14,  of  the  same  year 


BIGHT  BEV.   LOUIS  3L   FINK,  D.D., 

BISHOP    OF    LEAVENWORTH,     KAN, 


Eight  Eev.  Louis  M.  Fink  was  born  at  Triftersberg,  Bavaria, 
July  12,  1834.  He  received  his  elementary  and  most  of  his 
higher  education  at  Eatisbone.  Coming  to  America  in  1852,  he 
joined  the  Benedictine  Order  of  St.  Vincent's,  Pa.,  where  he  fin- 
ished his  studies  and  was  ordained  in  May,  1857.  He  was  suc- 
cessively stationed  at  Bellefonte,  Pa.;  Newark  and  several  other 
places  in  New  Jersey ;  St.  Joseph's,  Covington ;  and  St.  Joseph's 
Chicago,  which  latter  he  left  in  1868  to  be  placed  at  the  head 
of  St.    Benedict'.s    College    and    to    act  as  pastor  of  the  congregation 


92  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

in  charge  of  the  Fathers  at  Atchison,  Kan.  He  was  consecrated 
Bishop  of  Eucarpia  and  coadjutor  to  Right  Rev.  John  B.  Miege,  S.J., 
then  Vicar  Apostolic  of  the  territory  east  of  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains. He  was  transferred  to  tlie  newly  created  See  of  Leaven- 
worth  May    22,    1877. 


BIGHT  REV.  EDWARD   FITZGERALD,   D.D., 

BISHOP     OF     LITTLE     EOCK,     AEK. 


Right  Rev.  Edward  Fitzgerald  was  born  at  Limerick,  Ireland, 
October  28,  1833.  He  came  to  America  with  his  parents  in  184^ 
and  immediately  entered  the  preparatory  Seminary  of  St.  Mary, 
Barrens,  Mo.  Li  1852  he  was  admitted  into  the  Seminary  of  Cin- 
cinnati, and  in  1855  he  was  sent  to  Emmitsburg,  Md.,  to  finish 
his  studies.  He  Avas  ordained  August  22,  1857,  and  placed  in 
charge  of  St.  Patrick's,  Columbus,  O.,  where  he  remained  till  his. 
consecration   as    Bishop    of  Little   Rock,    February    3,    1867. 


BIGHT   REV.   KILIAN  C.   FLASCH,   D.D., 

BISHOP     OF     LA     Cr.OSSE,    WIS. 


Right  Rev.  Kilian  C.  Flasch  was  born  at  Retzstadt,  Bavaria, 
July  16,  1837.  He  was  brought  to  America  in  June,  1847,  and 
was  sent  to  school  to  the  Fathers  of  the  Holy  Cross,  South  Bend, 
Indiana,  completing  his  education  for  the  priesthood  at  the  Semi- 
nary of  St.  Francis  de  Sales,  near  ]\Iilwaukee.  He  was  ordained 
December  16,  1869,  and  consecrated  Bishop  of  La  Crosse,  August 
24,    1881. 


RIGHT  REY.  NICHOLAS  A.  GALLAGHER,  D.D., 

BISHOP    ADMINISTRATOR     OF    GALVESTON,    TEXAS. 


Right.    Rev.    Nicholas    A.    Gallagher    was    born    at    Temperance- 
ville,    Belmont   county,    Ohio,    February    19,    1846.       He     made    his 


LIVES  OF  THE  AMERICAN  PRELATES.  93 

classical,    philosophical  and    theological     studies    at    Mt.    St.     Mary's 

Seminary,    Cincinnati,  and    was     ordained    December     25,     1868,    at 

Columbus.       He    was  appointed     administrator    of    the     Diocese     of 

Columbus     October    8,  1878,    and    transferred    to    the    administration 

of    Galveston,    Texas,  January     10,    1882,    being    consecrated    April 
30,  1882. 


BIGHT  REV.  L.  DE  GOESBRIAND,  D.D., 

BISHOP     OF     BURLINGTON,    VT. 


Right  Rev.  L.  De  Goesbriand  was  born  in  France  August  4, 
1816.  He  received  his  theological  education  at  St.  Sulpice,  Paris, 
where  he  was  ordained  July  17,  1840.  He  came  to  America, 
arriving  in  Cincinnati  in  the  month  of  September  of  the  same  year. 
He  labored  on  the  missions  of  Northern  Ohio  till  1847,  when  he 
became  vicar  general  of  Cleveland  on  the  creation  of  that  diocese, 
at  which  post  he  remained  until  his  appointment  to  the  newly 
created  See  of  Burlington,  of  which  he  was  consecrated  Bishop  Octo- 
ber  30,  1853. 


BIGHT  BEY.  THOMAS  L.  GBACE,  D.D., 

TITULAR    BISHOP    OF    MENNITH. 


Right  Rev.  Thomas  L.  Grace  was  born  in  Charleston,  S.  C, 
November  14,  1814.  He  was  educated  at  the  College  of  the 
Minerva,  Rome,  and  was  ordained  in  that  city  December  21,  1839. 
On  his  return  to  America  he  was  stationed  at  Memphis,  Tenn., 
where  he  remained  fourteen  years.  He  was  consecrated  Bishop  of 
St.  Paul,  Minn.,  July  24,  1859.  He  resigned  the  See  of  St.  Paul 
April  31,  1884,  and  was  appointed  to  the  titular  See  .of  JSJennith 
November    13,  1884. 


EIGHT  BEV.  BICHABD  GIZMO  VB,  D.D., 

BISHOP    OF     CLEVELAND. 


Right    Rev.    Richard    Gilmour    was    born    in   Glasgow,    Scotland, 
September     28,    1824,    and    came    with    liis    parents    to    America    in 


94  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

1829.  When  eighteen  years  of  age  he  was  converted  to  the- 
Catholic  faith.  He  studied  for  the  priesthood  at  Mt.  St.  Mary's 
Seminary,  Emmitsburg,  being  ordained  August  30,  1852.  For  five 
years  he  labored  on  Missions  in  Ohio,  Kentucky  and  Virginia ;  in 
1857  he  was  appointed  pastor  of  St.  Patrick's,  Cincinnati,  retain- 
ing this  post  for  eleven  years;  from  March,  1868,  to  July,  1870, 
he  taught  at  ]\It.  St.  Mary's  of  the  West ;  tlien  took  charge  of 
St.  Joseph's,  Dayton,  where  he  remained  until  his  appointment  to 
the  Bishopric  of  Cleveland.     He  was  consecrated  April  14,   1872. 


BIGHT  REV.   W.  H.  GROSS,  D.D., 

BISHOP    OF    SAVANNAH,    GA. 


Right  Rev.  W.  H.  Gross  was  born  in  Baltimore  June  12,  1837, 
his  father  having  come  from  Alsace  in  colonial  times  and  his 
maternal  grandfather  being  one  of  the  exiles  from  Ireland  in  1798. 
He  was  educated  at  St.  Joseph's  College  and  joined  the  Redemp- 
torists  in  1857.  He  was  ordained  March  12,  1863,  by  Archbishop 
Kenrick,  and  was  stationed  successively  in  New  York  and  Boston, 
and  engaged  in  mission  work  until  he  finally  became  Superior  of 
the  Redemptorist  Home  in  Boston.  On  September  2,  1873,  he 
was  appointed  to  the  See  of  Savannah. 


BIGHT  BEY.   JOHN  HENNE8SY,   D.D., 

BISHOP     OF     DUBUQUE. 


Right  Rev.  John  Hennessy,  D.D.,  is  a  native  of  the  County 
Limerick,  Ireland,  where  he  made  his  preparatory  studies.  Coming 
to  America,  he  finished  his  classical  and  theological  courses  at  St. 
Louis,  and  was  ordained  November  1,  1850.  After  having  spent 
three  years  in  tJie  mission  he  was  a])pointed  professor  of  theology 
in  the  Diocesan  Seminary  of  St.  Louis,  where  he  spent  four  years, 
part  of  the  time  as  vice-president  and  part  of  the  time  as  presi- 
dent of  the  seminary.  He  spent  six  years  as  pastor  in  St.  Joseph, 
Missouri.  In  1866  he  was  appointed  Bishop  of  Dubuque,  and  con- 
secrated   September    30. 


LIVES   OF  THE  AMERICAN  PRELATES.  95 

BIGHT  REY.  JAMES  A.  HE  ALT,  D.D., 

BISHOP     OF     PORTLAND,  MAINE. 


Right  Rev.  James  A.  Healy  Avas  bora  near  Macon,  Ga.,  April 
6,  1830.  He  received  his  secuhu-  education  at  Flushing,  Long 
Island,  Burlington,  N.  Y.,  and  Holy  Cross  College,  Worcester,  Mass., 
graduating  in  1849.  He  made  his  theological  course  at  Montreal 
and  Paris  under  the  priests  of  St.  Sulpicc,  and  was  ordained  June 
10,  1854.  He  was  secretary  of  Right  Rev.  J.  B.  Fitzpatrick  until 
1866,  and  pastor  of  St.  James',  Boston,  until  1875,  in  which  latter 
year,  on  the  2d  of  June,  he  Avas   consecrated  Bishop   of  Portland. 


RIGHT  REY.   THOMAS  F.  HENDRIGKEN',  D.D., 

BISHOP     OF     PROVIDENCE,     R.     I. 

Right  Rev.  Thomas  F.  Hendricken  was  born  in  Kilkenny,  Ire- 
land, May  5,  1827.  He  was  educated  at  Maynooth  and  was  or- 
dained in  Dublin  April  25,  1853.  He  immediately  came  to  this 
country,  settling  first  in  Providence,  R.  I.,  but  soon  afterwards 
removing  to  Waterbury,  Conn.,  where  he  remained  for  eighteen 
years.  He  was  consecrated  the  first  Bishop  of  Providence  April 
28,    1872. 


RIGHT  REY.  JOHN  J.   HOGAN,  D.D., 

BISHOP    OF    KANSAS    CITY    AND    ADMINISTRATOR    OF     ST.     JOSEPH. 


Right  Rev.  John  Joseph  Hogan  was  born  in  the  Diocese  of  Lim- 
erick, Ireland,  May  10,  1829,  where  he  received  his  secular  edu- 
cation. He  came  to  America  in '  1848,  studied  philosophy  and 
theology  in  the  Diocesan  Seminary  of  St.  Louis,  and  was  ordained 
April  10,  1852.  He  was  successively  pastor  of  St.  James',  Potosi, 
St.  Michael's,  St.  Louis,  and  St.  Columbanus',  Chillicothe,  all  in 
Missouri.  On  September  13,  1868,  he  was  consecrated  Bishop  of 
St.  Joseph;  and-  on  September  10,  1880,  he  was  transferred  to 
the  newly  created  See  of  Kansas  City,  still  retaining  the  admin- 
istration   of  the    Diocese    of  St.    Joseph. 


96  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

RIGHT  REV.  JOHN  IRELAND,  D.B., 

BISHOP     OF     ST.     PAUL,    MINN. 


Right  Rev.  John  Ireland  was  born  in  Ireland,  Se'ptember  11, 
1838,  but  came  to  this  country  in  1849.  He  was  educated  in 
France  and  ordained  in  St.  Paul,  December  21,  1861.  He  \szts> 
consecrated  Coadjutor  Bishop  of  St.  Paul,  December  21,  1875,  suc- 
ceeding to  the  see  on  the  resignation  of  Right  Rev.  Thomas  L. 
Grace,  in  August,  1884.  His  earnest  work  in  the  cause  of  temper- 
ance has  gained  for  him  the  soubriquet  of  the  "  Father  Mathew 
of  the   West." 


RIGHT  REV.  FRANCIS  JANSSENS,  D.D., 

BISHOP     OF    NATCHEZ,     MISS. 


Right  Rev.  Francis  Janssens  was  born  at  Tilburg,  Holland, 
October  17,  1843.  He  studied  in  the  seminaries  of  his  diocese  and 
in  the  American  College,  Louvain,  Belgium,  and  was  ordained  at 
Ghent,  December  21,  1867.  He  came  to  'this  country  and  was 
stationed  at  the  Richmond,  Va.,  Cathedral,  where  he  remained  uutil 
he    w"as    consecrated    Bishop    of  Natchez,    May    1,    1881. 


^  RIGHT  REV.   ^GIDIUS  JUNGER,  D,D., 

BISHOP     OF     NESQUALLY,     WASH.     TEE. 


Right  Rev.  jFgidius  Junger  was  born  at  Burtscheid,  Rhein- 
provinz,  Prussia,  where  he  received  his  secular  education.  He 
made  his  classical  studies  at  the  Gymnasium  of  Aix-la-Chapelle, 
and  his  theological  course  at  the  Louvain  University,  Belgium,  and 
was  ordained  at  Malines,  July  26,  1862.  Coming  to  America 
the  same  year,  he  was  appointed  to  the  mission  of  Walla  Walla, 
in  the  Diocese  of  Nesqually,  November  6.  The  next  year  he 
was  appointed  rector  at  the  Cathedral  of  Vancouver,  AVashington 
Territory.  He  was  consecrated  Bishop  of  Nesqually,  October  28, 
1879. 


Most  Rev.  P.  W.  Biordan,  D.D. 


LIVES  OF  THE  AMERICAN  PRELATES.  97 

BIGHT  BEY.  JOHN  JOSEPH  KATN,  D.D., 

BISHOP    OF    WHEELING,     W.     VA. 


Right  Rev.  John  Joseph  Kain  was  born  at  Martinsburg,  W.  Va., 
May  31,  1841,  of  Irish  parents.  He  received  his  primary  educa- 
tion in  his  native  town ;  made  his  classical  studies  at  St.  Charles' 
College,  Md.,  and  his  theological  course  at  St.  Mary's  Seminary, 
Baltimore.  Ordained  July  2,  1866,  he  was  stationed  at  Harper's 
Ferry,  where  he  remained  for  nine  years,  having  charge  of  nine 
or  ten  counties  in  Virginia  and  West  Virginia.  He  was  conse- 
crated Bishop  of  Wheeling  May  23,  1875,  succeeding  Bishop  Whelan. 


BIGHT  BEV.  JOHN  J.  KEANE,  D.D., 

BISHOP    OF     RICHMOND,     VA. 


Right  Rev.  John  J.  Keane  was  born  at  Ballyshannon,  County 
Donegal,  Ireland,  September  12,  1839.  He  was  brought  to  America 
when  seven  years  of  age,  his  family  settling  in  Baltimore  in  1848. 
He  received  his  elementary  education  in  Baltimore  schools ;  made 
his  classical  studies  at  St.  Charles'  College,  Howard  county,  Md., 
and  his  theological  course  at  St.  Mary's  Seminary,  Baltimore.  He 
was  ordained  in  1866,  immediately  after  which  he  was  stationed 
at  St.  Patrick's  Church,  Washington,  where  he  remained  twelve 
years.     He  was   consecrated    Bishop  of  Richmond  August   25,  1878. 


BIGHT  BEY.  F.  X.  KB  A  UTBA  UEB,  D.D., 

BISHOP    OF    GREEN     BAY,     WIS. 


Right  Rev.  F.  X.  Krautbauer  was  born  in  the  parish  of  Bruck, 
near  Ratisbon,  Bavaria,  in  1824.  He  made  liis  studies  in  Ratis- 
bon  and  at  the  University  of  Munich,  returning  to  the  Seminary 
at  Ratisbon  and  being  ordained  July  16,  1850.  He  came  at  once 
to  America,  his  first  charge  being  St.  Peter's,  Rochester,  N.  Y. 
In    1858    he   became   Vicar    General   of  the   Diocese,   which   post   he 

G 


98  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL.- 

retained  for  one  year,  relinquishing  it  for  the  purpose  of  accepting^ 
the  chaplaincy  of  Notre  Dame  in  Milwaukee,  where  he  remained 
for  sixteen  years.  He  was  appointed  Bishop  of  Green  Bay  in  Feb- 
ruary, 1875,  being  consecrated   on  the   29th  of  the  following  month. 


RIGHT  REV.  JOSEPH  P.  MACHEBEUF,  D.D., 

VICAR    APOSTOLIC     OF    COLORADO. 


Right  Rev.  Joseph  P.  Machebeuf  was  born  at  Riom,  France, 
August  11,  1852.  He  received  his  secular  education  in  the  Chris- 
tian Brothers'  schools  and  the  College  of  Riom,  and  his  theological 
course  at  the  Seminary  of  St.  Sulpice,  Montferrand.  He  was  or- 
dained December  25,  1836,  and  was  assistant  priest  in  the  Diocese 
of  Clermont  for  three  years.  He  came  to  this  country  in  1839 ; 
labored  first  in  Sandusky  City,  Ohio ;  accompanied  Right  Rev.  J.  B. 
Lamy,  tlie  newly  appointed  Vicar  Apostolic  of  New  Mexico,  as  his 
vicar  general  to  the  West.  In  October,  1860,  he  was  sent  to 
Colorado  as  a  missionary,  and  built  the  first  church  in  that  terri- 
tory, at  Denver.  He  was  consecrated  Bishop  of  Epiphany  and 
Vicar   Aj^ostolic   of  Colorado   August    16,    1868. 


RIGHT  REV.  MARTIN  MARTY,  D.D., 

VICAR    APOSTOLIC    OF    DAKOTA. 


Right  Rev.  Martin  Marty  was  born  at  Schwyz,  Switzerland, 
January  12,  1834.  He  made  his  studies  in  the  Jesuit  Colleges 
of  Schwyz  and  Fribourg  and  in  the  Benedictine  Abbey  of  Ein- 
siedeln,  of  which  last  he  became  a  member  May  20,  1855.  He 
was  ordained  September  14,  1860.  In  September,  1860,  he  came 
to  America,  settling  at  the  Benedictine  Priory  in  Spencer  county, 
Indiana,  of  which  he  was  appointed  the  first  abbot  in  September, 
1870.  He  went  to  Standing  Rock,  Dakota  Territory,  in  1876,  to 
labor  as  a  missionary  among  the  natives,  and  was  appointed  Vicar 
Apostolic  of  Dakota,  August  8,  1879,  and  consecrated  titular  Bishop 
of  Tiberias,   February   1,    1880. 


LIVES  OF  THE  AMERICAN  PRELATES.  99 

BIGHT  BEY.  CAMILLUS  F.  MAES,  D.D., 


BISHOP    OP    COVINGTON,    KY. 


Eight  Rev.  Camillus  P.  ]\Iaes  was  bora  at  Courtrai,  "West  Flan- 
ders, Belgium,  March  13,  1846.  He  made  his  classical  studies 
in  the  college  of  that  city,  and  his  theological  course  at  the  Sem- 
inary of  Bruges  and  the  American  College,  Louvain,  being  ordained 
for  the  Diocese  of  Detroit,  December  18,  1868.  On  coming  to 
America,  he  was  stationed  as  pastor  of  Mount  Clemens,  Detroit, 
1869;  of  St.  Mary's,  Monroe,  1871:  of  St.  John's,  same  city,  1873, 
becoming  the  secretary  of  the  Diocese  of  Detroit  in  1880.  He  was 
appointed   to   the  vacant    See    of  Covington,   in  September,   1884. 


BIGHT  BEY.  PATBICK  MANOGUE,  D.D., 

BISHOP     OF    GRASS    VALLEY,     CAL.     AND    NEV. 


Eight  Eev.  Patrick  Manogue  was  born  at  Desart,  County  Kil- 
kenny, Ireland.  He  received  his  elementary  education  in  Callan, 
and  soon  after  came  to  America  and  settled  in  New  England.  He 
made  his  theological  course  at  St.  Mary's  of  the  Lake  and  the 
Sulpician  Seminary,  Paris,  where  he  was  ordained  in  1861.  After 
twenty  years  of  labor  on  mission  work  and  in  pastoral  charges, 
he  was  consecrated  coadjutor  Bishop  of  Grass  Valley  in  1881; 
and   Dromoted    to    the   Bishopric   in   March,    1884. 


RIGHT  REV.   D.   3IANUCY,   D.D., 

ADMINISTRATOR   OF   MOBILE,    ALA.,  AND    OF   THE   VICARIATE   APOSTOLIC 
OF   BROWNSVILLE,    TEXAS. 


Eight  Eev.  D.  Manucy  was  born  at  St.  Augustine,  Fla.,  De- 
cember 20,  1823,  where  he  received  his  secular  education.  He 
entered  Spring  Hill  College,  Mobile,  in  1842,  and  was  ordained 
August  15,  1850.  In  the  November  of  the  same  year  he  was 
sent    to    Warrington,    Fla.,    to    organize    a    congregation    and    build    a 


100  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

church;  in  March,  1853,  was  transferred  to  Apalachicola ;  in  April, 
1855,  Avas  called  to  the  Cathedral  of  Mobile  as  assistant ;  in  De- 
cember, 1861,  Avas  put  in  charge  of  the  Church  of  St.  Vincent 
de  Paul;  and  in  January,  1865,  was  transferred  to  St.  Peter's 
-Church.  He  was  consecrated  bishop  December  8,  1874,  and  sent 
to  Texas  to  organize  the  Vicariate  Apostolic  of  Brownsville,  and  in 
December,  1883,  was  made  Bishop  of  Mobile,  taking  charge  of 
his   see  on   Passion   Sunday,  March   30,  1884. 


BIGHT  REV.    FRANCIS  MORA,   D.D., 

BISHOP     OF     MONTEREY     AXD     LOS     ANGELES,     CAL. 


Right  Rev.  Francis  Mora  was  born  near  Vich,  Spain,  where 
he  received  his  secular  education,  making  his  theological  studies 
in  the  seminary  of  that  city.  In  1854  he  volunteered  to  come 
to  the  mission  of  California  with  Right  Rev.  Thaddeus  Amat,  by 
whom  he  was  ordained  at  Santa  Barbara,  March  19,  1856.  He 
was  successively  rector  of  several  churches,  becoming  finally  rector 
of  the  Pro-Cathedral  of  Los  Angeles,  February  1,  1863,  and  vicar 
general  in  1865.  He  was  consecrated  August  8,  1873,  Bishop  of 
Mossynopolis  and  Coadjutor  of  Right  Rev.  Thaddeus  Amat,  cum 
jure  successionisy  and  on  the  death  of  Bishop  Amat,  May  12,  1878, 
he  succeeded  to   the   See   of  jNIontcrey  and  Los  Angeles. 


BIGHT  REV.   JOHN  310 ORE,   D.D., 

BISHOP    OF   ST.    AUGUSTINE,    FLA. 


Right  Rev.  John  Moore  was  born  in  Delvin,  County  Westmeath, 
Ireland,  June  27,  1835.  In  1848  he  went  to  Charleston,  S.  C, 
studying  successively  in  the  Collegiate  Institute  and  the  Seminary 
of  St.  John  the  Baptist  in  that  city.  He  completed  his  studies 
in  the  College  of  Cambree,  France,  the  Roman  College  and  the 
Propaganda  College.  He  was  ordained  in  Rome,  April  9,  1860; 
was    assistant   at   the    Charleston    Cathedral   for  five  years ;    and  was 


LIVES  OF  THE  AMERICAN  PRELATES.  101 

for  twelve  years  pastor  of  St.  Patrick's  and  vicar  general  of  the 
diocese.  He  was  consecrated  Bishop  of  St.  Augustine,  Fla.,  May 
13,  1877,  as  the  successor   of  Bishop   Verot. 


BIGHT  REV.   TOBIAS  MULLEN,  B.B., 

BISHOP     OF     ERIE. 


Right  Rev.  Tobias  Mullen  was  born  in  Flushtown,  County 
Tyrone,  Ireland,  March  4,  1818.  Having  received  his  elementary 
education  in  the  national  schools,  he  entered  Maynooth  in  1840. 
Three  years  later  he  came  to  America  and  was  ordained  September 
1,    1884.     He  Avas    consecrated  Bishop    of  Erie,   August    2,  1868. 


BIGHT  BEV.   BEBNABD  J.   M'QUAID,  D.D., 

BISHOP    OF    ROCHESTER,     N.     Y. 


Right  Rev.  Bernard  J.  McQuaid  was  born  in  New  York  City, 
December  15,  1823.  He  was  educated  at  Chambly,  Canada,  and 
Fordham  College  and  Seminary,  New  York.  He  was  ordained  in 
the  Catliedral  of  New  York,  July  16,  1848,  and  after  twenty 
years  of  experience  in  mission  work  and  pastoral  charges,  was 
consecrated    Bishop    of  Rochester,    July    12,    1868. 


BIGHT  BEV.   WILLIA3I  GEOBGE  IPCLOSKEY,  D.D., 

BISHOP     OP     LOUISVILLE,    KY. 


Right  Rev.  William  George  McCloskey  was  born  in  Brooklyn, 
New  York,  November  10,  1823.  He  made  his  classical  studies  in 
St.  Mary's  College,  his  theological  course  in  the  seminary,  and  was 
ordained  in  the  Cathedral  of  New  York  by  Archbishop  Hughes  in 
1852.     Having    spent    one     year    on    the    mission    in    New    York   as 


102  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

the  assistant  of  his  brother,  the  Very  Rev.  George  McCloskey,  he 
returned  to  the  "Old  Mountain"  as  one  of  its  professors.  In  1857 
he  became  director  of  the  Seminary  and  professor  of  moral 
theology  and  Sacred  Scripture.  In  December,  1859,  he  was  ap- 
pointed by  Pope  Pius  IX  the  first  president  of  the  American  Col- 
lege, which  that  Pontiff  had  just  founded  in  Rome.  After  pre- 
siding over  this  institution  Dr.  McCloskey  was  appointed  to  the 
See  of  Louisville   and  consecrated    May  24,  1868 


RIGHT  REV.   LAWRENCE  S.   M'3IAH0N,   D.D., 

BISHOP     OF     HARTFORD,     COXN. 


Right  Rev.  Lawrence  S.  ]\IcI\Iahon  was  born  at  St.  John,  N.  B., 
December  26,  1835,  but  was  brought  to  *  Boston,  Mass.,  in  the 
following  year.  He  made  his  theological  studies  at  Aix,  in 
Provence,  France,  and  at  Rome.  He  was  ordained  in  the  latter 
city,  March  24,  1860.  On  his  return  to  America  he  successively 
served  at  the  Boston  Cathedral,  as  a  chaplain  in  the  army,  and  as 
pastor  of  New  Bedford.  He  was  appointed  Vicar  General  of  the 
Diocese  of  Providence  in  July,  1872,  and  was  consecrated  Bishop 
of  Hartford,    August    10,    1879. 


RIGHT  REV.   FRANCIS  31'NEIRNEY,   D.D., 

BISHOP    OP    ALBANY. 


Right  Rev.  Francis  McNeirney  was  born  in  Ncav  York  City, 
April  25,  1828,  where  he  received  his  secular  education  at  private 
schools.  Having  made  his  classical  studies  in  Montreal  College,  and 
his  theological  course  in  the  seminary  of  tlic  same  city,  both  under 
charge  of  tlie  Sulpician  Fathers,  he  was  ordained  August  17,  1854, 
in  St.  Patrick's  Cathedral,  New  York.  He  was  secretary  of  Arch- 
bishop, subsequently  Cardinal  McCloskey,  from  1854  to  1872;  Avas 
appointed  titular  Bishop  of  Rhesina  and  coadjutor  of  Albany, 
December    22,    1871;    was    consecrated    April     21,    1871;     appointed 


LIVES  OF  THE  A3IERICAN  PRELATES.  103 

administrator    of    Albany,  February    19,    1874,   becoming    Bishop    of 
the   see    by   right    of  succession,    October    12,    1877. 


BIGHT     BEV.     HENBY    PINCKNEY    NOBTHBOP,     D.D., 

BISHOP      OF       CHAELESTOX,      S.     C,      AXD       ADMIXISTEATOR      OF      NORTH 

CAROLINA. 


Eight  Rev.  Henry  P.  Northrop  was  born  in  Charleston,  S.  C, 
May  5,  1842.  He  received  the  rudiments  of  his  education  at 
Georgetown  College,  D.  C.  (1853-G),  whence,  on  his  health  failing, 
he  was  sent  to  St.  Mary's  College,  Emmitsburg,  graduating  in 
1860.  Entering  the  seminary  the  same  year,  he  studied  there  four 
years,  going  thence  to  the  American  College  in  Rome,  where  he 
was  ordained  in  June,  1865.  For  some  months  he  was  on  dutv 
at  the  Church  of  the  Nativity,  New  York;  was  one  year  at  St. 
Joseph's,  Charleston ;  four  years  at  Nev/bern,  N.  C. ;  six  years 
assistant  at  St.  John's  Pro-Cathedral,  Charleston,  and  pastor  of 
Sullivan's  Island ;  and  one  year  pastor  of  St.  Patrick's  Church, 
Charleston.  He  was  made  titular  Bishop  of  Rosalia  and  Vicar 
Apostolic  of  North  Carolina,  January  8,  1882.  By  brief  dated 
January  27,  1883,  he  was  transferred  to  the  See  of  Charleston, 
as  the  successor  of  Right  Rev.  P.  N.  Lynch,  still  retaining  the 
administration   of  the  Vicariate   of  North    Carolina. 


BIGHT   BEV.    JOHN   C.    NEBAZ,    D.D. 

BISHOP    OF   SAN    ANTONIO,    TEXAS. 


Right  Rev.  John  C.  Neraz  was  born  at  Anse  (Rhone)  France, 
January  12,  1828.  He  received  his  preliminary  education  at  the 
Seminary  of  St.  Jodard  (Loire),  and  made  his  theological  course 
in  the  Sulpician  Seminary  of  Lyons.  He  came  to  America  in  1852 
and  was  ordained  in  Galveston,  Texas,  March  19,  1853.  After 
a  succession  of  mission  and  pastoral  charges  he  was  appointed 
administrator,  then  Bishop  of  the  Diocese  of  San  Antonio,  being 
•consecrated  May  8,  1881. 


104  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

BIGHT  REY.  EUGENE  O'CONNELL, 

TITULAR    BISHOP     OF     JOPPA. 


Right  Kev.  Eugene  O'Connell  was  born  near  the  cities  of  Kells 
and  Navan,  County  Meath,  Ireland,  June  18,  1815,  where  he  re- 
ceived his  secular  education.  He  made  his  theological  course  in 
the  Royal  College  of  St.  Patrick,  Maynooth,  where  he  was  or- 
dained in  June,  1842.  After  discharging  missionary  duties  in 
several  parishes  and  being  a  professor  in  All  Hallows  College,  he 
sailed  for  California,  arriving  in  1851.  He  was  for  a  year  in 
charge  of  the  natives  of  Santa  Inez;  for  three  years  at  the  Sem- 
inary of  St.  Thomas,  near  San  Francisco,  returning  in  1854  to 
All  Hallows.  The  Archbishop  of  San  Francisco  recalled  him  in  1861, 
Avhen  he  was  created  Bishop  of  Flaviopolis  and  Vicar  Apostolic 
of  Marysville.  He  w^as  translated  to  the  See  of  Grass  Valley 
(composed  of  Northern  California  and  Nevada),  March  22,  1868,  of 
which  charge  he  was  relieved  at  his  own  request  March  17,  1884, 
being  then  appointed  titular  Bishop  of  Joppa. 


BIGHT  BEV.   M.  J.    O'FABBELL,   D.D., 

BISHOP    OF   TRENTOX,    N.    J. 


Right  Rev.  M.  J.  O'Farrell  was  born  in  Limerick,  Ireland, 
December  2,  1832.  He  was  educated  at  All  Hallows,  Dublin, 
and  St.  Sulpice,  Paris,  being  ordained  in  his  native  city,  August 
18,  1855.  Having  labored  on  missions  for  thirteen  years,  he  was 
stationed  at  St.  Peter's  Church,  New  York,  from  1868  to  1881. 
He  was  consecrated  the  first  Bishop  of  Trenton,  November  1,   1881. 


EIGHT  BEV.  JAMES  O' CON  NOB,  D.D. 

VICAIi    APOSTOLIC    OF     NEBRASKA. 


Right  Rev.  James  O'Connor  was  born  in  Quecnstown,  Ireland, 
September  10,  1834.  Ho  came  to  Philadelphia  in  1838,  and 
there    completed     his     preparatory     studies     at     the    Seminary    of   St. 


LIVES  OF  THE  AMERICAN  PRELATES.  105 

Charles  Borroraeo.  In  January,  1843,  he  entered  the  College  of 
Propaganda,  at  Rome,  where  he  studied  philosophy  and  theology, 
and  returned  to  the  United  States  in  1848.  He  commenced  his 
missionary  labors  in  the  Diocese  of  Pittsburg,  under  his  brother, 
who  had  been  made  its  first  bishop  in  1843.  He  was  rector  of 
St.  Michael's  Seminary  for  about  seven  years,  vicar  general  and 
administrator  of  the  diocese  for  one  year,  and,  in  1862,  returned 
to  Philadelphia.  He  was  then  appointed  professor  of  philosophy 
and  ecclesiastical  history  at  St.  Charles'  Seminary,  and,  soon  after, 
rector,  M'hich  position  he  retained  till  June,  1872,  when  he  re- 
signed and  was  appointed  pastor  of  St.  Dominic's  Church,  Hohms- 
burg.  He  was  consecrated  Bishop  of  Dibona  and  Vicar  Apostolic 
of  Nebraska,    August    20,    1876. 


BIGHT  BEY.  PAT  BIG K  T.   O'BEILLY,  D.D., 

BISHOP    OF    SPRINGFIELD,    MASS. 


Right  Rev.  Patrick  T.  O'Reilly  was  born  in  Ireland,  December 
24,  1833.  He  was  sent  to  this  country  when  a  small  boy.  He 
made  his  classical  studies  at  St.  Charles'  College,  near  Ellicott 
City,  and  his  theological  course  at  St.  Mary's  Seminary.  He  was 
ordained,  August  15,  1857.  After  much  experience  of  mission  work 
and  pastoral  charges,  he  Avas  appointed  Bishop  of  Springfield  in 
June,  1870,  and  was   consecrated   September  25,   1870. 


BIGHT  BEY.  JAMES  BADEMAGHEB,  D.D., 

BISHOP     OF    NASHVILLE,    TENN. 


Right  Rev.  James  Rademacher  was  born  in  Clinton  County, 
Mich.,  December  3,  1840.  He  made  his  classical,  philosophical  and 
theological  studies  at  St.  Vincent's  College,  Westmoreland  county, 
and  at  St.  Michael's  Seminary,  near  Pittsburg,  Pa.,  being  ordained 
August  2,  1863,  in  the  Cathedral  of  Fort  Wayne,  Ind.  He  was 
in  charge  of  Attica,  Fountain  County,  Ind.,  and  a  number  of  smaller 
missions    for    seven  and  a-half  years ;  in    Columbia   City  for  eighteen 


106  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

months;  at  St.  Mary's  Chapel,  Fort  Wayne,  for  eight  years,  and 
at  St.  Mary's  Church,  Lafayette,  Ind.,  for  three  years.  He  was  con- 
■secrated    Bishop    of  Nashville,  June    24,  1883. 


EIGHT  BEV.  HENRY  J.  RIGHT ER,  D.D., 

BISHOP     OF     GRAXD     TwVPIDS,    MICH. 


Eight  Ecv.  Henry  J.  Richter  was  born  in  Neuenkirchen,  Grand 
Duchy  of  Oldenburg,  Germany,  April  9,  1838.  In  1854  he  came 
to  America.  He  studied  at  St.  Xavier's  College,  Cincinnati ;  St. 
Thomas'  Seminary,  Bardstown,  Ky. ;  St.  Mary's  Seminary,  Cincin- 
nati, and  at  the  American  College,  Rome,  in  which  city  he  was 
ordained  in  1865.  On  his  return  to  America  he  was  made  presi- 
dent and  vice-rector  of  St.  Mary's  Seminary,  Cincinnati,  which  post 
he  retained  until  1870,  when  he  became  pastor  of  St.  Lawrence's 
and  chaplain  of  the  Sisters  of  Charity  at  Cedar  Grove.  He  was 
consecrated    Bishop    of    Grand  Rapids,  April    22,  1883. 


RIGHT  REV.    ISIDORE  ROBOT,  D.D., 

PREFECT   APOSTOLIC    OF   INDIAN   TERRITORY. 


Right  Rev.  Isidore  Robot  was  born  near  Avallon,  France,  July 
17,  1837.  Having  joined  the  Benedictine  Order,  he  came  to  America 
in  1873  and  took  cliarge  of  a  mission  in  Louisiana.  In  1875 
he  settled  in  Indian  Territory,  and  founded  the  Sacred  Heart  Mis- 
sion. He  was  raised  to  the  dignity  of  Abbot  in  1877,  having 
received  charge  of  the  Prefecture  Apostolic  of  Indian  Territory, 
first  created  by  the  Holy   See,   May   14,   187f3. 


RIGHT  REV.  STEPHEN  VINCENT  RYAN,  D.D., 

BISHOP    OF    BUFFALO,    N.    Y. 


Right  Rev.  Stephen  B.  Ryan  was  born  in  Ottawa,  Canada, 
January  1,  1825,  but  was  brought,  when  a  child,  by  his  parents 
to  Pottsville,  Pa.     In  1846    he  entered  St.  Charles'  Seminary,  Phila- 


LIVES  OF  THE  AMERICAN  PRELATES.  107 

delpliia,  and  in  1844  went  to  Missonri  to  join  the  Lazarist  Com- 
munity, finishing  his  studies  at  Cape  Girardeau  and  the  Barrens, 
and  being  ordained  at  St.  Louis  in  1849.  He  was  then  engaged 
as  professor,  president,  and  visitor  to  the  communities  at  St.  Mary's 
College,  Barrens,  St.  Vincent's  College,  Cape  Girardeau,  and  the 
mother  house  in  St.  Louis,  until  the  latter  was  transferred  in 
1868  to  Germantown,  Pa.  He  Avas  consecrated  Bishop  of  Buffalo 
in  the  cathedral  of  that  city,   November   8,  1868. 


BIGHT  BEV.  BTJPEBT  SEIDENBUSH,  D.D., 

VICAR    APOSTOLIC     OF    NORTHERN     MINNESOTA. 


Eight  Kev.  Rupert  Seidenbush  was  born  at  Munich,  Bavaria, 
■October  13,  1830.  He  came  to  America  in  1850,  and  joined  the 
Benedictine  Order.  Having  finished  his  theological  studies  at  St. 
Vincent's,  Westmoreland,  Tenn.,  he  was  ordained  in  June,  1853. 
After  having  worked  on  the  missions  in  the  Dioceses  of  Pittsburg, 
Erie,  Tennessee  and  Newark,  N.  J.,  he  was  recalled  as  prior  to 
St.  Vincent's  Abbey  in  1863.  In  1866  he  was  elected*  Abbot  of 
the  newly  erected  Abbey  of  St.  Louis  (now  St.  John's),  Minn., 
and  blessed  May  30,  1867.  In  the  year  1875  he  was  nominated 
titular  Bishop  of  Halia  and  Vicar  Apostolic  of  Northern  Minnesota, 
and  consecrated  May  30. 


BIGHT  BEY.  JEBEMIAH  F.  SHANAHAN,  D.D., 

BISHOP    OF    HARRISBURG,    PA. 


Right  Rev.  Jeremiah  F.  Shanahan  was  born  at  Silver  Lake, 
Susquehanna  County,  Pa.,  July  17,  1834.  His  early  studies  were 
made  in  the  local  schools,  the  Academy  of  Binghampton,  N.  Y., 
and  St.  Joseph's  College,  Pa.,  and  his  theological  course  at  the 
Seminary  of  St.  Charles  Borromeo,  Philadelphia.  He  was  ordained 
July  3,  1859,  and  immediately  appointed  rector  of  the  preparatory 
Seminary  of  the  Philadelphia  Diocese,  where  he  remained  until  his 
appointment  of  the  new  See  of  Harrisburg.  He  was  consecrated 
in    the    Cathedral    of  Philadelphia,    July    12,    1868. 


108  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

BIGHT  REV.  JOHN  TUIGG,  D.D., 

BISHOP    OF    PITTSBUEG    AND    ADMINISTRATOR    OF    ALLEGHENY. 


Right  Rev.  John  Tuigg  was  born  in  County  Cork,  Ireland,  in 
1822,  and  received  his  education  at  All  Hallows  College.  He 
came  to  Pittsburg  in  1850,  and  was  ordained  in  the  May  of 
that  year.  He  was  first  stationed  at  the  Pittsburg  Cathedral,  then 
was  the  pastor  of  Altoona,  where  he  remained  until  appointed  to 
the  See  of  Pittsburg,  March  19,  1876,  when  that  diocese  was 
divided.  On  August  3,  1877,  the  Diocese  of  Allegheny  was 
temporarily  reunited  to  that  of  Pittsburg,  and  he  was  appointed 
administrator    of  it. 


RIGHT  REV,  JOHN  YERTIN,  B.D., 

BISHOP     OF    MARQUETTE    AND    SAUT    SAINTE    MARIE. 


Right  Rev.  John  Vertin  was  born  at  Carniolia,  Sclavonia,  July 
17,  1844,  where  he  received  his  secular  education.  Coming  to 
America  in  1863  he  made  his  philosophical  and  theological  course 
in  the  Seminary  of  Milwaukee,  Wis.  He  was  ordained  August  31, 
1866,  and  labored  on  missions  in  several  States  until  September 
14,  1879,  when,  having  been  appointed  to  the  see,  he  was  conse- 
crated Bishop  of  Marquette  in  place  of  Bishop  Mrak,  who  had  re- 
signed  the   previous   year. 


RIGHT  REV.  J.  L.  SPALDING,  D.D., 

BISHOP    OF    PEORIA,     ILL. 


Right  Rev.  J.  L.  Spalding  was  born  at  Lebanon,  Ivy.,  in 
1840.  He  received  his  education  at  St.  Mary's  College,  in  Ken- 
tucky; at  Mt.  St.  Mary's,  Emmitsburg,  Md.,  and  at  St.  Mary's, 
Cincinnati,  where  he  graduated  in  1859.  In  the  fall  of  the  same 
year  he  went  to  Louvain,  Belgium,  and  after  studying  there  five 
years   was    ordained.     Having    spent    a    year   in    Rome,    lie    returned 


LIVES  OF  THE  AMERICAN  PRELATES.  109 

to  Kentucky,  and  was  made  secretary  to  the  Bishop  of  Louisville. 
At  the  end  of  three  years  was  appointed  to  organize  a  congrega- 
tion among  the  colored  Catholics  of  Louisville,  and  he  there  built 
for  them  a  church,  school  house  and  pastoral  residence.  He  remained 
in  charge  for  two  years,  when  he  was  appointed  chancellor  of  the 
diocese.  In  1872  he  went  to  New  York  to  write  a  life  of  Arch- 
bishop Spalding.  When  this  work  was  done  he  remained  in  the 
city  as  assistant  at  St.  Michael's  Church,  a  post  he  held  until  his 
appointment  to  the  newly-created  Diocese  of  Peoria.  He  was 
<;onsecrated    May    1,    1877. 


BIGHT  BEV.   EDGAB  P.   WADHAMS,  D.D., 

BISHOP     OF     OGDEXSBURG,    N.    Y. 


Eight  Rev.  Edgar  P.  Wadhams  was  born  at  Lewis,  Essex 
County,  N.  Y.,  May  21,  1817.  Having  received  his  secular  educa- 
tion in  the  Middlebury  College,  he  made  his  theological  course  at 
St.  Sulpice  Seminary,  Baltimore,  and  was  ordained  in  Albany, 
January  15,  1850.  He  was  stationed  in  several  churches  in  suc- 
cession, becoming  rector  of  the  Albany  Cathedral  and  vicar  general 
of  the  diocese  in  1866.  He  was  appointed  Bishop  of  Ogdensburg, 
Eebruary   15,  1872,  and    consecrated.    May  5,   1872. 


BIGHT  BEV.  JOHN  AMBBOSE    WATTE BS ON,  D.D., 

BISHOP    OF    COLUMBUS,    O. 


Right  Rev.  John  A.  Watterson  was  born  in  Blairsville,  Indiana 
County,  Pa.,  May  27,  1844.  He  began  his  education  in  his 
native  town's  parochial  school  and  in  St.  Vincent's  College,  near 
Latrobe,  Pa.,  completing  his  classical,  philosophical,  and  theological 
courses  at  St.  Mary's  College,  Emmitsbnrg,  Md.,  and  was  ordained 
at  St.  Vincent's  Abbey,  August  8,  1868.  On  the  invitation  of 
Dr.  McCaffrey,  he  returned  to  Mount  St.  Mary's  as  professor  of 
classics,    and    was    a    few    years    afterwards    raised    to    the    chair    of 


110  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

theology.  In  September,  1878,  he  was  elected  president  of  the  col^ 
lege  and  seminary,  and  on  March  14,  1880,  was  appointed  Bishop 
of  Columbus,  Ohio,  to  succeed  Right  Rev.  Sylvester  H.  Rosecraus. 
He  "was  consecrated  by  Archbishop  Elder  in  the  Cathedral  of 
Columbus  on  the  8th  of  the  following  August,  the  twelfth  anni- 
versary   of  his    ordination. 


BIGHT  REV.   WINAND  31.   WIGGER,  D.D.y 

BISHOP    OF    NEAVARK,    N.    J. 


Right  Rev.  "VVinand  M.  Wigger  was  born  in  New  York,  De- 
cember 9,  1841,  and  received  his  secular  education  at  St.  Francis' 
College.  He  entered  Seton  Hall  Seminary,  South  Orange,  N.  J., 
in  1860,  where  he  remained  two  years,  after  which  he  was  sent 
to  a  college  in  Genoa,  Italy.  He  was  ordained  June  10,  1865.  On 
liis  return  to  America  he  was  appointed  assistant  in  the  cathedral 
parish,  Newark;  became  successively  rector  of  St.  Vincent's,  Madi- 
son ;  St.  John's,  Orange,  and  St.  Theresa's,  Summit.  He  was  con- 
secrated  Bishop  of  Newark,  N.  J.,  October   18,  1881. 


RIGHT  REV.  A.  J.    GLORIEUX,  D.D., 

VICAR   APOSTOLIC-ELECT    OP   IDAHO. 


Right  Rev.  A.  J.  Glorieux  was  born  at  Dottignies,  West  Flan- 
ders, Belgium,  February  1,  1844.  He  was  educated  at  the  College 
of  Courtrai,  Belgium,  from  1857  to  1863;  made  his  philosophical 
and  theological  courses  at  the  American  College,  Louvain,  from 
1863  to  1867;  was  ordained  at  Malines,  by  his  Eminence  Car- 
dinal Sterchx,  on  August  17,  1867;  and  left  Belgium  for  Oregon 
October  13,  1867.  He  had  charge  of  the  Southern  Missions  of 
Oregon  for  two  years ;  became  rector  of  St.  Paul,  French  Prairie, 
in  1869 ;  took  charge  of  St.  Michael's  College,  Portland,  on  the 
28th  of  August,  1871,  and  remained  in  that  position  until  ap- 
pointed Vicar    Apostolic  of  Idaho  in  1884. 


■;,  ■-■  ■               .>■.., iv.-.-.'iV.,       ■   ■:                     ^-^       '■ 

^^|k.^ 

^^^^r                                                     v^^p^^ 

m-^-      ^^^^i 

O                -LLL-^'^ 

1  ^n- 

f^    1 

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Most  Jiev.  Francis  A'.  J.e/yn/,  D.D. 


PASTORAL    LETTER 


MOST  REY.  ARCHBISHOP  OF  BALTIMORK 


—  ON    THE  — 


i':e3:i^^id  ^iLiE2sr-A.i^"2-  coiua^ciiLi, 


TO    THK   CLERGY    AND    LAITY    OF   HIS   DIOCESE. 


James   Gibbons,  by  the   grace   of  God,  and   the  favor   of  the  Apos- 
tolic See,  Archbishop  of  Baltimore  and  Apostolic  Delegate. 

To  THE  Clergy  and  Faithful  of  the  Archdiocese  of  Baltimore  : 

Venerable  Brethren  of  the  Clergy,  and  Dearly  Beloved  Children  of  the 
Laity : — Our  Holy  Father,  Leo  XIII,  out  of  his  paternal  solicitude 
for  the  welfare  of  all  the  faithful  committed  to  his  care,  has 
desired  all  the  Bishops  of  the  Church  in  the  United  States  ta 
assemble  in  Plenary  Council,  to  consider  the  best  means  for  pro- 
moting the  salvation  of  souls  in  this  portion  of  our  Lord's  vine- 
yard ;  and  because  of  the  infirm  health  of  his  Eminence,  the 
Cardinal  Archbishop  of  New  York,  who  was  so  well  qualified  to 
preside,  not    only   on    account    of    his    high    office,   but   also    of    his 

(111) 


112  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

mature  wisdom  and  weight  of  merits,  his  Holiness  was  pleased 
to  appoint  us,  to  convoke  by  his  Apostolic  authority,  the  Third 
Plenary  Council  of  Baltimore,  and  to  preside  over  the  same  as 
Apostolic    Delegate. 

We  therefore,  dearly  beloved  brethren  and  children,  now  make 
known  to  you,  that  in  virtue  of  this  authority,  we  have,  by  our 
letters  of  date  INIarch  27,  of  this  year,  convoked  the  Third 
Plenary  Council  to  convene  in  our  Metropolitan  Church  at  Balti- 
more on  the  ninth  day  of  November,  in  this  year  of  our  Lord, 
1884. 

Eighteen  years  have  now  elapsed  since  the  last  Plenary  Council 
was  held,  and  we  have  reason  to  be  devoutly  thankful  to  God 
for  the  steady  progress  which  religion  has  made  in  the  United 
States  since  that  period.  It  cannot  fail  to  be  a  source  of  con- 
solation and  benefit  to  the  chief  Pastors  of  the  Church  of 
America  to  meet  again  after  so  long  an  interval,  to  recount  their 
trials,  their  hopes  and  their  success  in  their  respective  fields  of 
labor,  to  interchange  views,  to  enlighten  one  another  by  mutual 
counsel,  and  to  derive  that  strength  and  confidence  Avhich  result 
from  the  reunion  of  earnest  men  engaged  in  the  same  holy 
mission. 

The  steady  expansion  of  the  hierarchy  and  of  the  faithful 
during  the  last  two  decades  of  years  naturally  calls  for  the 
enactment  of  special  statutes  to  meet  the  exigencies  of  the  times, 
and  our  gradual  transition  from  a  missionary  state  to  the  fixed 
and  normal  condition  of  the  Church,  demands  an  adjustment  of 
legislation    more    suitable   to    our    improved    situation. 

Every  State  and  Diocese  of  the  Union  will  be  represented  at 
the  approaching  Council  by  Prelates  and  Priests ;  and  although 
they  are  descended  from  divers  nations,  and  speak  every  European 
tongue,  they  are  all  united  by  the  bonds  of  a  common  faith,  and 
animated  by  the  spirit  of  fraternal  charity,  having  "  one  Lord, 
one  faith,  one  baptism,  one  God  and  Father  of  all."  (Ephes.  iv.) 
To  them  maybe  truly  applied  the  words  of  the  Psalmist:  "Behold 
how  good  and  how  pleasant  a  thing  it  is  for  brethren  to  dwell 
together    in    unity."     (Ps.    cxxxii.) 

The  object  fi)r  M'hich  this  Council  is  summoned,  as  you  are 
well  .aware,  is  not  to  formulate  new  dogmas  of  fiiith ;  for  the 
only   doctrine   we    preach    to     you    is    "  the    faith    once    delivered    to 


PASTORAL  LETTER   OF  ARCHBISHOP  GIBBONS.  113 

the  saints."  (Jude  i,  3.)  Nor  will  our  deliberations  have  any 
political  significance,  since  we  have  no  political  grievances  to 
redress  nor  political  aspirations  to  gratify.  The  Church  of  God 
has  no  direct  relations  with  politics ;  political  intrigues  form  no 
part  of  her  divine  mission ;  the  kingdom  of  Christ  and  of  His 
Church  "  is  not  of  this  world."  (John  xviii.)  She  "  renders  to 
Csesar  the  things  that  are  Caesar's,  and  to  God  the  things  that 
are    God's."     (Matt,    xxii.) 

The  enactment  of  salutary  laws  for  the  promotion  of  piety 
and  sound  morals,  the  correction  of  abuses,  the  establishment,  as 
far  as  practicable,  of  greater  uniformity  in  ecclesiastical  discipline, 
the  development  of  the  Christian  commonwealth,  the  quickening 
and  strengthening  of  the  bonds  of  charity  which  should  bind  us 
all  as  members  of  the  Christian  family,  to  our  God,  and  to 
each  other — these  are  the  signal  blessings  at  which  we  aim  in 
assembling   together. 

You  know,  brethren  of  the  laity,  that  by  our  ordination  as 
Priests,  and  consecration  as  Bishops,  we  are  irrevocably  dedicated 
to  your  service.  Whether  we  preach  the  word,  or  administer  the 
sacraments,  or  celebrate  the  sacred  mysteries,  or  erect  temples  of 
worship,  it  is  for  your  sakes  that  these  labors  are  accomplished : 
Our  Lord  "gave  some  to  be  Apostles,  and  some  Prophets,  and 
some  Evangelists,  and  others  Pastors  and  Doctors,  for  the  perfect- 
ing of  the  saints,  for  the  work  of  the  ministry,  for  the  building 
up    of  the    body    of  Christ."     (Ephes.    iv.) 

If  we  meet  in  Council,  our  object  is  to  make  you  more 
upright  citizens,  by  becoming  holier  Christians ;  for  "  righteousness 
exalteth    a    nation,    but    sin    maketh    nations    miserable."  (Pro v.    xiv.) 

We  have  all,  both  clergy  and  people,  been  redeemed  by  the 
same  blood  of  Jesus  Christ ;  Ave  are  all  in  the  same  bark  of 
Peter,  and  are  steering  for  the  same  eternal  shores ;  we  have  all 
the  hope  of  the  same  heavenly  inheritance.  As  our  spiritual 
interests  are  the  same,  so  should  we  be  actuated  by  the  same 
zeal   for    the    advancement    of  religion. 

We,  therefore,  rely  on  your  generous  cooperation,  and  invoke 
your  pious  interest  in  the  successful  issue  of  the  Council.  We 
are  sure.  Brethren  of  the  clergy,  and  Children  of  the  laity,  that 
following  the  traditions  of  your  fathers,  you  will  joyfully  welcome 
and    hospitably  entertain,  the    prelates    and    clergy  who  will    be    vour 


114  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

honored  guests  during  the  Council,  and  that  you  will  emulate  in 
this  regard  the  veneration  of  the  primitive  Christians  of  whom  the 
Apostle  writes  :  "  You  received  me  as  an  angel  of  God,  even  as 
Christ    Jesus."    (Gal.    iv.) 

"  We    beseech    you    especially,   brethren,    through    our    Lord    Jesus 
Christ,    and    by    the    charity    of  the    Holy    Ghost,    that    you    help    us 
by   your   prayers    for    us    to    God."    (Rom.    xv.)    "  Praying    at    all 
times    in    the    spirit    .    .    .  .that    speech    may   be    given     us,    that    we 
may    open    our    mouth    with    confidence,    to    make    known     the    mys- 
tery   of    the    Gospel,    for    which    we    are    ambassadors."      (Ephes.  vi.) 
Pray   that    God    may    enlighten    the    minds,    purify    the    hearts    and 
direct    the   will    of    the   assembled    prelates,    that    all    our    acts    may 
contribute    to    His    glory,    the    propagation    of    His    Church,   and    the 
sanctification     of    its     members.     May    our     legislation     tend    to     the 
stability    of    the    commonwealth,    and    the    maintenance    of    the    peace 
and    tranquility    of  our    beloved    country.     ]\Iay   the    Supreme    Legis- 
lator,  the    source   of  all  light,   be    the    sole   Suggestor    and    Guide  of 
our  judgments,    so    that  we    may   in    nowise    stray   from    the    path   of 
equity.     May    we    so     temper    justice    with    charity,    that    our     deci- 
sions   may   be    approved    by   Him    by    whom   "kings    reign    and    law- 
givers   decree  just    things."    (Prov.    xiv,   34.) 

With  the  view  of  obtaining  the  divine  light  by  union  of 
prayer,  we  deem  it  advisable  to  ordain  and  promulgate  the  fol- 
lowing   exercises    of  devotion    for    this    archdiocese : 

1.  The  collect  de  Spiritu  Sancto  will  be  added  in  the  Mass 
by  the  priests  of  the  archdiocese  henceforward  till  the  close  of 
the    Council. 

2.  All  the  religious  communities  of  both  sexes  will  recite, 
daily,    the    hymn    of  the    Holy    Ghost,     Vcnl    Creator    Sjjiritus.  ' 

3.  The  Litany  of  the  Saints  will  be  publicly  recited  in  the 
parish  churches,  either  before  or  after  the  High  Mass,  on  every 
Sunday,    till    the    first    Sunday    of   November    inclusive. 

This  Pastoral  Letter  will  be  read  in  all  the  churches  of  the 
archdiocese   on    the    Sunday   after    its    reception. 

Given     at     our     residence     in     Baltimore    on     the     Feast    of     St. 

Augustine,    1884. 

♦J«James  Gibbons, 
Archbishop  of  Baltimore,  Apostolic  Delegate. 
A.  A.  Curtis, 

Secretary. 


SERMONS 


DELIVERED   DURING  THE  SESSIONS 


•OF    THE — 


TX^IITEID     :E=IjE3^T-A-:R-^     COTTZbTOIXj 


OF    BALTIMORE. 


Most  Rev.  P.  J.  By  an,  D.D. 


SERMOI  OF  MOST  REY.  PATRICK  JOM  RYIH,  D.D., 

ARCHBISHOP   OF   PHILADELPHIA. 


"And  Jesus  coming  spoke  to  them,  saying:  All  power  is  given  to  Me  in 
"heaven  and  in  earth ;  going,  therefore,  teach  ye  all  nations ;  baptizing  them  in 
the  name  of  the  Father  and  of  the  Son  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost :  teaching  them 
to  observe  all  things  whatsoever  I  have  commanded  you :  and,  behold,  I  am  with 
you  all  days,  even  to  the  consummation  of  the  world." — St.  Matthew,  c.  xviii, 
V.  IS,  19  and  SO. 

IT  is  not  without  emotion  and  embarrassment  that  I  presume 
to  address  you  on  the  occasion  of  the  opening  of  this  great 
council.  It  is  difficult  to  rise  to  an  adequate  conception  of 
the  importance  and  the  majesty  of  this  scene.  In  you,  Most 
Reverend  Apostolic  Delegate,  I  behold  represented  the  mighty 
headship  of  Peter,  whom  Christ  placed  supreme  pastor  over 
His  flock  and  made  the  rock  on  which  He  built  His  Church, 
and  because  of  which  the  falling  rains  and  rising  floods  and 
pelting  storms  have  beaten  in  vain — and  '^  that  house  fell  not, 
"because  it  was  founded  on  a  rock."  And  in  you,  venerable 
Fathers  of  the  Council,  I  behold  the  successors  of  the  other 
Apostles  —  unshorn  of  a  single  prerogative  essential  to  the 
Apostolate,  as  that  Apostolate,  according  to  Christ's  express  words, 
was  to  continue  until  the  consummation  of  the  world.  I  behold 
you  as  pillars  supporting  and  adorning  the  great  temple  of 
God,  your  mitres  indicating,  like  Corinthian  capitals,  the  particular 
order  of  sacred  architecture  in  which  you  belong.  I  behold 
you  assembled  with  a  ])ower  direct  from  God,  not  deputed,  but 
ordinary,  for  the  Holy  Ghost  Himself  has  placed  you  "bishops  to 
rule  the  Church  of  God."  I  salute  you  as  a  portion  of  the 
great    senate    of  the    kingdom    of    God    on     this    earth    assembled    to 


2         SERMONS  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

deliberate  and  to  legislate  for  its  propagation  and  perpetuation  m 
this  new  Morld ;  and  you,  beloved  brethren  of  the  clergy,  secular 
and  regular,  assembled  in  such  vast .  numbers,  you  "^dio  possess  the 
awful  powers  of  the  priesthood  of  Jesus  Christ — you  who  know 
best  of  all  the  wants  of  the  great  body  of  the  people  because  of 
your  more  intimate  relations  with  them,  you  come  to  aid  us  by 
your  experience,  your  learning  and  your  counsel.  And  you,  dear 
brethren  of  the  laity,  the  flock  committed  to  our  care  by  the 
Eternal  Pastor,  "  our  joy  and  our  crown,"  you  come  to  witness 
and  be  edified  by  this  scene,  and  t:)  help  us  effectually  by  asking 
God  for  the  illumination  of  our  intellects  and  the  sanctification  of 
our  hearts  by  His  holy  grace,  that  here  we  may  decree  what  is 
right,  what  "seems  good  to  the  Holy  Ghost,"  and  that  after- 
wards we  may  have  the  zeal  and  fortitude  to  act  out  what  we 
shall   have    decreed. 

Impressive  as  is  this  scene  to-day,  there  are  circumstances. 
M'hich  intensify  that  impressiveness  for  some  of  us  here  present,, 
who  beheld  a  similar  spectacle  in  this  cathedral  eighteen 
years  ago.  The  contrast  in  the  number  of  prelates  present  is- 
a  fair  index  to  the  progress  of  the  Church.  Forty-six  bishops 
then  represented  the  Church  of  these  States ;  now  it  numbers 
over  seventy-two,  with  a  proportionate  advance  in  the  religious 
orders  and  the  clergy.  Of  the  forty-six  bishops  of  the  last  council 
thirty  have  since  passed  away  to  the  great  Bishop  of  our  souls. 
May  we  not  believe  that  these  thirty  bishops  look  down  from  the 
celestial  sanctuary  and  the  hierarchy  of  heaven  to  the  scene  in 
this  sanctuary  to-day?  Has  not  their  nearness  to  God  increased 
their  love  and  zeal  for  His  honor?  Does  not  the  possession  of 
their  happiness  inspire  them  with  a  desire  that  the  people  they 
once  ruled  and  loved  should  be  enabled  by  wise  legislation  to 
follow  their  old  pastors  to  the  home  of  the  Good  Shepherd,  and 
see  and  feel  how  good  is  our  God?  Certain  it  is  that  the  Scrip- 
tures tell  us  that  Onias,  who  had  been  high  priest,  prayed  for 
the  people  of  God,  and  Jeremias,  who  had  been  prophet,  retained 
his  interest  in  his  people,  and  prayed  much  for  them ;  and  this 
is  represented  as  occurring  over  four  hundred  years  after  his 
death.  And,  handing  Judas  Machabeus  a  sword  of  gold,  Jere- 
mias said  to  this  valiant  chief:  "Take  this  sword,  a  gift  from 
God,   wherewith  thou   shalt  overthrow  the    adversaries   of  my  people 


THE  CHURCH  IN  HER  COUNCILS.  3 

Israel."  So,  beloved  brethren,  the  prelates  that  have  passed  away 
are  still  united  with  lis  in  the  communion  of  saints,  pray  for  us, 
and  by  their  prayers  furnish  us  with  the  arms  which  we  must 
use    in    the    great    conflict    for    the    right. 

That  conflict  is  becoming  daily  more  important  not  only  in 
reference  to  the  world  to  come,  but  also  as  regards  our  present 
life.  The  foundations  of  the  social  edifice  seem  almost  shaken,  and 
men  are  looking  for  a  stronger  and  more  permanent  basis  for 
morality.  They  feel  that  the  tendency  is  towards  greater  license 
still.  I  believe  that  the  eyes  of  many  thoughtful  men  of  different 
denominations,  and  of  no  denomination  at  all,  are  directed  towards 
this  council,  and  they  are  disposed  to  say  to  us :  "  Can  you 
Catholic  bishops  and  priests  do  anything  to  help  to  stem  the  tor- 
rent already  so  threatening  ? "  We  cannot  trust  men  as  we 
formerly  did.  Honor,  honesty  and  purity  seem  on  the  wane 
amongst  us,  and  our  confidence  is  daily  diminishing.  Ah,  brethren, 
men  have  rashly  imagined  that  honor  and  principle,  to  the  exclu- 
sion of  religious  influences,  would  be  all-sufficient  to  restrain 
human  passion.  They  must  come  back  to  the  sacred  shrine  of 
religion  to  •  find  security.  She,  like  a  wounded  but  tender  mother, 
will   receive   and    succor   them. 

As  appropriate  to  this  occasion,  I  propose,  this  morning,  to  speak 
to  you  on  the  subject  of  the  Church  in  her  councils  with  special 
reference  to  her  moral,  social  mission.  A  fundamental  error  of 
our  day,  and  the  source  of  many  other  errors,  is  a  wrong  pop- 
ular conception  of  the  nature  and  office  of  the  Church  in  the 
Christian  system.  How  often  do  not  men  say :  "  We  are  desirous 
to  accept  Christ  and  His  teachings.  We  accept  the  sublime 
morality  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  and  we  recognize  truth 
and  sanctity  in  all  that  is  related  of  Christ's  words  and  deeds, 
and  believe  Him  the  best  friend  of  humanity.  But  we  object  to 
your  Churches  and  theologies  as  an  aftergrowth  of  human  origin." 
It  is  important  at  the  very  beginning  that  we  should  consider 
this  position.  No  man  can  accept  Christ  without  that  which  is 
inseparably  connected  with  Him,  and  such  is  an  institution  which 
He  calls  His  Church  and  which  He  identifies  with  Himself,  and 
constituted  the  living  witness  in  all  ages  and  places  of  the  facts 
of  His  life  and  the  teacher  of  His  doctrines  and  sanctifying 
morality.      AVhat    mean    these    words    coming    from    the     same    lips 


4  SEBMONS  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

and  heart  as  the  eight  beatitudes  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount? — 
"  On  this  rock  I  buikl  My  Church,  and  the  gates  of  hell  shall 
not  prevail  against  it."  "  He  that  will  not  hear  the  Church,  let 
him  be  to  thee  as  the  heathen  and  the  publican."  "  He  who  hears 
you  hears  Me,  and  he  who  despises  you  despises  Me."  "As  the 
Father  sent  Me,  so  also  I  send  you."  "All  power  is  given  to  Me 
in  heaven  and  in  earth ;  go  ye,  therefore,  and  teach  all  nations ; 
and  behold  I  am  with  you  all  days  until  the  consummation  of 
ages."  This  identity  with  Christ  is  confirmed  by  this  expostulation 
to  the  persecutor,  Saul:  "Saul,  Saul,  why  persecutest  thou  Me?" 
Now,  Saul  did  not  persecute  Christ  in  His  sacred  Person,  but 
he  did  it  in  His  mystic  body,  the  Church,  and  hence  Christ  said : 
"  I  am  Christ  whom  thou  persecutest."  As  if  He  said :  "  He 
who  despises  you  despises  Me,  and  he  who  strikes  you  strikes 
Me."  We  find  here  more  than  justified  St.  Paul's  comparison  of 
the  union  of  Christ  with  His  Church  to  the  union  of  husband 
and  wife.  And,  not  only  did  he  identify  the  Church  Avith  Him- 
self, but  He  identified  it  also  with  the  other  two  persons  of  the 
Holy  Trinity.  "  He  who  despises  you  despises  Me,  and  he  who 
despises  Me  despises  Him  that  sent  Me ; "  therefore,  for  the  syl- 
logism is  perfect,  he  who  despises  you  despises  Him  that  sent 
Me — God  the  Father.  And  again,  He  said  He  would  send  God 
the  Holy  Ghost  to  abide  with  them  forever,  to  be  to  them  a 
Spirit  of  truth  and  consolation — another  Paraclete — to  be  the  very 
life  of  the  future  Church,  as  man's  soul  is  the  life  of  his  body. 
This  identification  of  the  Church  with  God  the  Holy  Ghost  is 
expressly  mentioned  by  the  Apostles  after  their  last  council  in 
Jerusalem,  when  they  said :  "  It  seemeth  good  to  the  Holy  Ghost 
and  to  us." 

The  Church  so  identified  with  God  has  a  twofold  mission — a 
mission  of  verification  and  sanctification.  In  the  first  she  bears 
witness  to  the  facts  of  our  Lord's  life  and  the  doctrines  He  taught, 
and  in  the  second  she  sanctifies  in  His  name  the  individual  and 
society ;  and  these  ends  she  attains  in  great  part  through  her  coun- 
cils. "  You  shall  bear  witness  to  Me  in  Jerusalem  and  in  all 
Judea  and  Samaria,  and  to  the  uttermost  ends  of  the  earth." 
Her  testimony  to]  Him  is  written  in  the  blood  of  her  martyrs. 
For  a  martyr  is  not  a  man  who  merely  dies  for  an  opinion  or 
a  conviction ;  a  martyr  means  a  witness,  one  who  dies,  testifying 
what   he   has    seen    or   heard. 


TEE  CEURCE  IN  EER  COUNCILS.  5 

Now  Christianity  is  a  religion  of  facts,  and  the  eye-witnesses 
and  ear-witnesses  of  the  events  of  our  Lord's  life  died  declaring 
these  things  to  be  facts,  and  have  continued  to  do  so,  as  the 
Church  continued  to  live.  As  the  sun  in  the  firmament  to-day, 
were  he  able  to  speak,  or  testify  to  what  he  saw,  could  say :  "I  was 
there  when  He  made  the  blind  to  see  and  the  lame  to  walk  and 
the  deaf  to  hear  and  the  dumb  to  speak,  and  raised  the  dead  to 
life ;  my  rays  beamed  on  His  thorn-crowned  head  Avhen  Pilate 
exclaimed  to  the  multitude,  '  Ecce  Homo ! '  I  saw  the  men  tear 
the  garments  from  His  body  and  nail  Him  to  the  gibbet,  and  as 
they  were  about  to  expose  Him  to  the  multitude,  I,  like  Noe's 
son,  averted  my  face  of  light  and  cast  the  mantle  of  darkness 
over  my  exposed  and  expiring  Lord — '  from  the  sixth  hour,  when 
there  was  darkness  over  the  whole  earth,  until  the  ninth  hour.' 
My  evening  beams  fell  on  His  silent  sepulchre,  and  on  the  morn- 
ing of  the  third  day,  when  He  arose,  I  poured  a  flood  of  golden 
light  into  His  vacant  grave.  I  saw  Him  ascend,  from  Mt.  Olivet 
until  He  passed  above  the  domain  of  my  light  into  '  the  glory 
which  He  had  before  the  world  was  made.'  I  have  seen  the  perse- 
cutions which  His  followers  endured  in  every  age  for  1900  years." 
In  like  manner,  beloved  brethren,  is  the  Church  a  witness,  in 
every  age,  to  the  great  facts  on  which  Christianity  is  founded. 
The  Church  of  the  first  century  was  the  Church  of  the  second, 
and  so  until  the  present  century.  Her  bishops  meet  in  council, 
bringing  together  the  traditions  of  their  different  Churches,  and  pre- 
serving unbroken  the  chains  of  testimony.  Unbroken,  because,  to 
use  an  admirable  illustratiouj  which  I  heard  in  the  closing  sermon 
of  the  council  held  here  eighteen  years  ago,  as  the  breaking  of 
the  Atlantic  cable  at  any  point  would  prevent  the  transmission  of 
a  message  from  Europe,  so,  if  the  chain  of  testimony  be  not 
unbroken,  we  cannot  know  with  certainty  the  great  fundamental 
facts  of  Christianity.  She,  too,  can  say :  "  In  the  persons  of  the 
Apostles,  I  was  there  when  He  performed  His  miracles.  In  Peter 
and  John  I  looked  into  His  vacant  sepulclire  and  testified  to  the 
great  central  fact  of  His  resurrection,  and  for  nearly  1900  years 
have  I  chanted  my  'Alleluias'  over  the  place  where  they  laid  Him. 
I  have  testified  to  Him  in  the  person  of  my  first  martyr,  Stephen, 
and  my  cloud  of  witnesses  has  grown  thicker  and  more  crimson 
as    it   has    passed   along   the    firmament    of    time.       I    stood    in    the 


6  SBRMOIiS  OF  TUB  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

Coliseum  by  Ignatius  when  the  lions  bounded  \\^\\  him  and  pul- 
verized that  noble  ^  wheat  of  Christ.'  I  M'as  in  Rome  with  Peter 
and  at  Corinth  and  Athens  with  Paul.  I  was  down  in  the  Cata- 
combs, where  even  the  sun's  rays  could  not  shine,  and  testified 
to  my  buried  and  risen  Lord.  I  stood  by  the  throne  of  the 
Ctesars  when  my  son  Constantino  mounted  its  steps.  I  went  out 
in  the  persons  of  the  missionaries.  I  was  a  witness  to  Him  '  in 
Jerusalem  and  in  all  Judea,  and  to  the  uttermost  ends  of  the 
earth. ' ' 

Such  is  the  Church  as  Christ  prophesied  it  should  be.  Where 
is  it  to-day,  for  it  lives  with  the  communicated  vitality  of  God 
the  Holy  Ghost,  who  abides  in  it?  Where  is  it  to-day?  Look 
around  and  see  it  represented  in  part  in  this  great  council.  Plow 
glorious  it  is,  how  real,  how  living !  Alive  with  the  life  of  God 
and  strong  with  the  strength  of  God,  and  beautiful  with  the 
beauty  of  God.  To  it  to-day  may  He  say  in  the  words  of  Scrip- 
ture :  "  Thou  art  made  exceedingly  beautiful,  because  of  My  own 
beauty,  which  I  have  put  upon  thee."  Not  beauty  in  the  mere 
external  pomp  of  ritual,  not  in  the  sheen  of  these  golden  mitres, 
ox  the  splendor  of  precious  vestments.  These  are  but  the  varie- 
gated garments  of  the  King's  daughter :  not  even  in  the  inner 
individual  sanctity  of  any  who  wear  them,  but  in  their  official 
position  as  representatives  of  God,  "  because  of  INIy  OM'n  beauty, 
which    I   have   put    upon   thee.' 

But  the  mission  of  the  Church  is  not  only  to  testify  to  facts, 
but  also  to  sanctify  the  individual  and  society.  She  acts  on  the 
world  through  her  sovereign  head,  tlie  Pope,  through  her  bishops 
on  their  several  dioceses,  and  through  her  councils.  These  coun- 
cils are  chiefly  of  four  lands — the  Ecumenical,  or  General  Council, 
consisting  of  the  Sovereign  Pontiff  in  person  or  representative  and 
the  bishops  of  the  world ;  the  Plenary  Council,  like  the  present 
one,  composed  of  an  Apostolic  Delegate  and  the  bishops  of  a 
particular  country;  the  Provincial  Council,  consisting  of  an  arch- 
bishop and  the  bishops  of  a  particular  section  known  as  his 
province ;  and  the  Diocesan  Council  or  Synod,  composed  of  the 
bishop  and  priests  of  a  particular  diocese.  Now  the  Church  in 
these  councils  acts  for  the  benefit  of  society  in  three  different 
ways :  Fir&t,  indirectly,  by  preserving  tlie  j)urity  and  certainty  of 
great  truths,  which  give  certain  motive  to  morality;  secondly,  by 
the    reformation  of  morals    amongst    her    own    chiklren;    and  thirdly, 


THE  CHURCH  IN  HER   COUNCILS.  7 

by  her  solicitude  for  the  poor  and  suffering  memoers  of  society. 
The  purity  of  faith  she  preserves  especially  by  her  Ecumenical 
Councils.  The  decisions  of  such  councils  she  regards  as  unerring. 
A  tribunal  like  the  Supreme  Court  of  a  State  or  of  the  United 
States  takes  cognizance  only  of  overt  acts,  and  may  be  final 
without  being  infallible.  But  when  there  is  a  question  of  legis- 
lating for  the  intellect  itself,  how  can  a  decision  which  may  be 
wrong  settle  a  doubt?  Now,  certainty  of  faith  is  all-important 
for  purity  of  morals.  If  I  have  only  a  vague  opinion  of  the 
future  life,  of  hell  and  heaven,  and  of  my  personal  responsibility 
for  the  sins  of  my  life,  this  opinion  will  never  stand  the  test 
of  a  great  temptation.  Hence  there  must  be  an  unerring  mode 
of  solving  doctrinal  doubts.  The  logical  connection  of  faith  with 
morals  is  almost  ignored  in  our  day.  Formerly  the  cry  was 
"justification  by  faith  alone."  Now  it  is  justification  by  works 
alone,  no  matter  what  men  believe,  as  if  works  did  not  depend 
on    faith    for    their    great    motives. 

Secondly,  she  discharges  her  mission  to  society  by  the  reforma- 
tion of  abuses  that  arise  amongst  the  clergy  and  laity,  and  this  she 
does  in  both  general,  plenary,  provincial  and  diocesan  councils. 
If  she  does  not  always  succeed  in  such  reformation,  we  must 
remember  that  the  influences  of  the  Church,  though  necessary,  are 
not  necessitating.  She  no  more  than  her  spouse  can  paralyze  that 
tremendous  power — free  will.  Satan  in  heaven,  Adam  in  paradise 
and  Judas  Iscariot  at  the  Last  Supper,  with  all  the  sanctifying 
influences  around  them,  most  miserably  sinned.  No  man  can  deny, 
from  an  examination  of  her  ethical  teaching  and  sacramental  system, 
as  well  as  from  the  facts  of  history,  that  the  Catholic  Church 
has  the  power  to  sanctify,  and  has  sanctified,  individuals  and 
society.  By  that  power  she  evangelized,  civilized  and  sanctified 
Europe  in  the  past.  By  it  she  led  captive  to  the  feet  of  Jesus 
Christ  the  conquerors  of  the  Roman  Empire  in  the  persons  of 
the  Northern  invaders  of  Southern  Europe.  She  has  the  power, 
and  has  used  it,  but  she  will  not  and  cannot  force  men  to  hear 
and  heed  her.  The  individuals  and  nations  that  have  heard  her 
and  neglect  her  teachings  are  much  more  difiicult  to  convert  than 
those  who  know  her  not.  I  believe  that  she  never  had  a  grander 
mission  in  all  her  history  than  she  has  to-day  to  the  noble, 
generous  and  fair-minded  American  people.  And  in  regard  to 
certain    parts    of    Europe    only    God    knows    how    much   worse    they 


8  SEEMONS   OF   TUB   THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

would  be  without  her  influence.  And  whilst  her  faith  remains 
there  is  left  the  power  to  bring  back  these  men  to  the  true 
standard    of   Christian    morality. 

A   third    mode    by   which    she    discharges    her    mission   to    society 
is    by    the    amelioration    of   the    condition    of  the    poor    and    suffering 
of  our   race,  and    in    this    great  work   also    she   acts    in    her   councils 
and   in   imitation  of  her   Founder.     The  trite    saying    that    "one-half 
of  the    world    does    not    know    how   the    other    half    lives"    was    par- 
ticularly  true    before    the    coming    of    Christ.     Poverty   was    virtually 
a    crime    and    a     degradation.     Even     the     divine     Plato,    the     most 
naturally    Christian    perhaps    of    all    the    pagan    philosophers,    in    his 
regulations    for    a    model   republic   would    have    the   poor    expelled   if 
they    became    so    numerous    as    to    disturb    the   peace    of    the   pros- 
perous.    Everywhere    in    the    pagan   world    was    poverty   persecuted, 
when   an   angelic   voice    was    heard    above    the   pastures    of   Palestine 
addressing    some    poor    shepherds    in    these   words :     "  Fear    not,    for 
I    bring   to    you    glad    tidings    of  great  joy  that    shall    be    to    all  the 
people,    for     this    day    is     born     to     you    a    Saviour,    who    is    Christ 
the    Lord    in    the    city  of  David,  and   this    shall    be    a   sign   to    you : 
you    shall     find    the     child    wrapped     in    swaddling    clothes    and    laid 
in    a    manger."      The    Saviour    of    the   poor.    He    came    in    poverty, 
and     defied     poverty    by     uniting     His     Divinity    to     it.       Soon     the 
kings    of    the    East    came,    and   wealth,    royal    wealth,    was    found    at 
the    feet    of    poverty.     The    first    words     He    spoke    in    His    sermon 
on    the    Mount   were,   "  Blessed    are    the     poor,"     During    life    He 
often    had   not  where   to  lay  His   head.     He  died   in  the  embrace  of 
poverty,  and  as   in    life   He  had  not  place  to   lay  His    head,  neither 
had     He     after     death,    for     they    laid     Him     in     a     sepulchre     that 
belonged    to    another.     He    made    care    for    the    needy   the    condition 
for    obtaining    eternal   happiness,    and    neglect  of  the    poor,  He    said, 
would     be     punished    with     eternal     exclusion    from    the    kingdom    of 
God.     He  will  give    His    benediction    or    malediction   to  the   children 
of  men    acccording    to  this   criterion — "  I    was   hungry  and    you  gave 
Me    meat,    thirsty    and    you    gave     Me     to    drink,    naked    and     you 
clothed    Me."     So    that    His    identification  with    poverty,   commencing 
in    Bcthleheni;    shall    continue    for    all    time.      We    behold    this    solici- 
tude   for    the    poor    continued    in    the    apostolic    days.     St.    Paul    and 
St.    Barnabas    were     particularly    charged,     as     the     former    tells     us, 
to   take    care    of   the    poor,    which    thing,    he    says,    we   were    careful 
to    do. 


THE  CHURCH  IN  HER   COUNCILS.  9 

The  Churcli  continued  this  great  Avork  through  pontiflPs,  bishops, 
and  priests  in  lier  councils.  Thus  we  find  the  Council  of  Csesarea, 
in  313,  commending  and  praising  the  assistants  of  the  bishops, 
especially  for  their  care  of  the  poor.  The  Council  of  Aix,  in  816, 
commanded  that  all  ecclesiastical  foundations  of  monks  and  canons 
should  provide  for  a  certain  number  of  the  poor,  the  sick,  widows 
and  strangers.  A  Council  of  Lyons  in  558,  commanded  that  the 
clergy  should  keep  lists  of  the  poor  in  their  districts,  so  that  they 
might  be  aided.  The  Council  of  Ravenna,  in  1113,  ordered  that 
four  or  six  men  should  be  annually  elected,  whose  business  it 
should  be  to  collect  for  the  poor,  and  granted  forty  days'  indul- 
gence to  all  contributors  on  the  conditions  always  required  for 
indulgences,  that  the  persons  gaining  them  should  be  contrite  for 
their  sins.  The  Council  of  Trent  granted  extensive  powers  to  bishops 
to  visit  the  sick  poor  in  hospitals,  and  we  well  know  the  devoted- 
ness  of  bishops    and   priests  to  such  work. 

Now,  beloved  brethren,  this  care  for  the  poor  is  not  only  a 
divine  and  ecclesiastical  law,  but  it  is  the  highest  wisdom  of  the 
political  economist.  "  One-half  of  the  world  does  not  know  how 
the  other  half  lives,"  but  that  other  half  will  soon  let  them 
know  and  assure  them  that  they  do  not  intend  to  live  so  any 
longer.  Christian  kindness  to  the  poor  and  the  working  men  and 
women,  and  the  inculcation  of  patience  in  poverty,  after  the  example 
of  our  Lord,  are  the  best  securities  against  the  communism 
and  anarchy  that  seem  to  threaten  society.  In  the  same  manner 
did  the  Church  act  in  regard  to  prisoners  and  slaves.  We 
know  how  cruelly  both  of  these  classes  were  treated  before  the 
appearance  of  the  divine  Prisoner  in  the  hall  of  Pontius  Pilate. 
We  know  how  captives  were  dragged  at  the  chariot  wheels  of 
Roman  conquerors  and  imprisoned  in  dungeons  into  which  the 
white  light  of  heaven  was  not  permitted  to  enter  until  a  Christian 
emperor  decreed  that  the  darkness  should  be  dispelled  and  the  cap- 
tives  see  the  sun. 

The  Church  in  the  Councils  of  Chalcedon,  in  541,  and  Orleans, 
in  549,  provided  for  the  visitation  of  prisoners,  according,  says  the 
Council  of  Chalcedon,  "  to  the  traditions  of  the  Fathers,"  showing 
that  it  had  always  been  the  custom.  So  in  regard  to  slaves  the 
Councils  of  Chalon-sur-Saone,  in  550,  Celchet,  in  England,  in  816, 
London,  in  1102,  and  Armagh,  in  Ireland,  in  1172,  provided  for 
their  gradual  emancipation.     The  Council  of  Armagli  liberated  all  the 


10  JSEBiVONS  OF  TUB  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

English  in  Ireland  who  -were  held  as  slaves.  How  salutary  was 
the  effect  on  society  of  such  authoritative  action  on  the  part  of 
the    Church. 

To  sum  up  what  I  have  said :  Because  society  in  our  day 
needs  regeneration,  and  morality  needs  a  firmer  basis  than  mere 
natural  honor  and  integrity,  which  so  easily  yield  to  strong  temp- 
tation ;  because  Christ  is  the  great  Regenerator  and  the  name  of 
Jesus  the  only  name  under  heaven  by  which  society,  like  the 
individual,  can  be  saved ;  because  the  institution  called  the  Church 
is  inseparably  connected  with  Christ,  being  in  truth  Himself  con- 
tinued ;  because  she  has  in  her  councils  ever  sustained  morality 
by  increasing  faith  in  the  dogmas  that  give  it  life  and  motive ; 
because  she  has  in  these  councils  endeavored  to  correct  moral  abuses 
within  her  fold ;  because  by  her  principles  and  institutions  she  has 
ameliorated  the  condition  of  the  poor  and  the  unfortunate  and  taught 
them  contentment  with  their  lot — therefore  have  we  ground  of  hope 
that  she  will  be  a  great  conservative  power  in  this  young  and 
promising  republic,  and  that  the  council  that  here  represents  her 
comes  most  opportunely  in  the  order  of  God's  providence  to  sus- 
tain it.  But  we  must  remember,  brethren,  that  it  is  the  super- 
natural element  that  is  most  potent  in  producing  and  preserving 
the  good  that  we  seek,  for  "  unless  the  Lord  guard  the  city  they 
labor  in  vain  who  guard  it."  Therefore  let  us  ask  God's  blessing 
on  the  deliberations  of  this  great  council.  Let  all — bishops,  priests 
and  people — "  adore  and  fall  down  before  the  Lord  who  made  us, 
for  the  Lord  is  our  God ;  we  are  His  people  and  the  sheep  of 
His  pasture."  Let  the  faithful  people  cry  out,  "  Send  forth  Thy 
light  and  Thy  truth,  that  they  may  lead  us  and  those  who  gov- 
ern us  to  Thy  holy  mountain  and  unto  Thy  tabernacles."  Let 
bishops  and  priests  between  the  porch  and  the  altar  cry  aloud, 
"  Spare,  O  I^ord,  spare  Thy  people ;  preserve  human  society  from 
the  fierce  delirium  of  its  passions."  Let  bishops,  priests  and 
people  ask  God  in  profound  supplication  that  the  sacrifice  of  the 
Mass  just  offered  may  be  borne  by  the  hands  of  His  holy  angel 
— even  the  angel  of  His  great  council — to  His  sublime  altar  in 
the  heavens  and  in  sight  of  His  Divine  Majesty,  that  the  par- 
takers of  it  may  be  filled  with  every  grace  and  celestial  benedic- 
tion, and  that  the  Holy  Spirit  in  whose  honor  it  has  been 
offered  "  may  come  and  fill  the  hearts  of  the  faithful,  enkindle 
in   them   the   fire    of  His    love,   and    thus    renew   the    fiicc   of  earth." 


Mont  liev.  V.  J.  iSerjherf,  I).  I). 


lit.  licv.  John  Jtelavd.  /f.JK 


Most.  Rev.  1'.  It  Kenrick,  I).l>. 


Most  lU-v.  John  IS.  Lcunij.  D  1>. 


lit.  licv.  yEcjidins  Jnnrj^r,  D.D 


SBRMOU  OF  EIGHT  KEY.  JOHH  lEELAID,  D.D., 

EISHOP   OF   ST.    PAUL.    HIKH. 


"Let  every  soiU  be  subject  to  higher  powers:  for  there  is  no  power  but  from 
God:    and  those  that  are,   are  ordained  of    God." — Bom.,   c.   xiii,   v.   1. 

I  DO  not,  I  think,  mistake  the  feelings  of  many  of  my  fellow- 
countrymen  in  presence  of  the  Plenary  Council  now  holding  its 
sessions  in  Baltimore,  when  I  ascribe  to  them  the  desire  that  a 
statement  be  made  as  to  the  bearings  of  the  Catholic  Church  in 
her  teachings  and  her  practical  acting  towards  civil  society,  and 
notably,  perhaps,  towards  the  form  of  government  for  society 
which  obtains  in  the  United  States  of  America.  Whether  they 
examine  or  not  the  claims  of  the  Church  to  their  spiritual 
allegiance,  they  know  her  to  be,  from  the  number  of  her  adherents, 
her  closely  organized  forces,  the  consistency  of  her  principles  in 
•doctrines  and  morals,  a  great  power  in  the  land,  a  most  important 
factor  in  forming  the  destinies  of  the  commonwealth ;  and,  with 
reason,  they  believe  it  to  be  their  right  to  inquire  what  the 
results  may  be  from  the  continued  growth  and  development  of 
her    influence    among   the    citizens    of    the    republic. 

The  American  people  have  had  their  false  prophets  wlio  strove 
to  create  prejudice  against  the  Catholic  Church.  Again  and  again 
from  sectarian  pulpit  and  popular  rostrum  has  the  accusation  gone 
forth  that  she  is  the  evil  genius  of  society  and  of  government, 
and    that    loyalty  to    licr    means    disloyalty  to    their    free    institutions. 

I  respect  too  much  my  fellow-countrymen  not  to  be  glad,  M'hen 
the  occasion  offers,  to  declare  to  them  the  truth  and  to  guard 
ihem  against  deceiving  tongues.  I  love  too  deeply  the  Catholic 
Church    and    the    American    republic   not    to    be    ever    ready   to    labor 

(11) 


12  SI:IlJIO^^s  of  the  third  plenary  council. 

that  the  relations  of  the  one  with  the  other  be  not  misunderstood. 
It  is  true,  the  choicest  field  which  providence  offers  in  the  world 
to-day  to  the  occupancy  of  the  Church  is  this  republic,  and  she 
welcomes  with  delight  the  signs  of  the  times  that  indicate  a  glori- 
ous future  for  her  beneath  the  starry  banner.  But  it  is  true, 
also,  the  surest  safeguards  for  her  own  life  and  prosperity  the 
republic  will  find  in  the  teachings  of  the  Catholic  Church,  and  the 
more  America  acknowledges  those  teachings,  the  more  durable  will 
her  civil  institutions  be  made.  I  speak  beneath  this  cathedral 
dome  no  less  as  an  American  citizen  than  as  a  Catholic  bishop. 
The  Church  is  the  mother  of  my  faith,  the  guardian  of  my  hopes 
for  eternity  :  America  is  my  country,  the  protectress  of  my  liberty 
and  of  my  fortunes  on  earth.  I  could  not  utter  one  syllable  that 
would  belie,  however  remotely,  either  Church  or  republic,  and 
when  I  assert,  as  I  now  solemnly  do,  that  the  principles  qf  the 
former  are  in  thorough  harmony  with  the  interests  of  the  latter, 
I    feel    in    the    depths    of  my    heart    that    I    speak    the    truth. 

You  will  permit  me  to  put  before  you  the  principles  of 
Catholic  theology  relating  to  civil  society.  These  principles  will  be 
the  proof  that  the  Church,  equally  opposing  anarchy  and  despotism, 
is    the   sure    guardian    of  society,  the    sure   defender    of  true    liberty. 

Man  is  by  nature  a  being  fashioned  for  society  — "  civile 
animal.'^  His  instincts,  his  needs  demand  society;  they  demand 
the  guarantees  and  the  encouragements  of  society.  He  depends 
for  very  existence  and  for  growth  to  mature  life  upon  the  family^ 
the  first  of  social  units ;  individual  and  fiimily  again  depend 
for  the  enjoyment  of  their  most  sacred  rights  upon  the  higher 
social  form — the  State.  It  is  the  superior  authority  of  the  body 
politic  that  secures  to  all  "  life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of 
happiness."  The  great  movements  which  improve  and  elevate  the 
human  race  spring  from  the  emulation  which  society  supplies,  and 
are  carried  to  success  through  the  reduction  of  separate  forces 
under  the  law  of  unity,  which  is  the  eternal  principle  of  order, 
beauty  and  power.  The  absence  of  social  organization  introduces 
warfare  with  his  fellows  as  man's  permanent  condition,  paralyzes 
his  energies  for  good,  consecrates  barbarism.  Man,  as  a  rational, 
perfectible  being,  is  impossible  outside  of  society.  But  society 
means  a  central  authority,  a  government,  and  here  we  are  con- 
fronted  with    the    great   problem    underlying    all    social   philosophy — 


THE  CHURCH— THE  SUPPORT  OF  JUST  GOVERNMENT.         13 

the  constitution  of  society  upon  principles  which,  while  guarding 
it  from  anarchy  on  the  one  hand,  Mill  guard  it  with  no  less 
jealousy  from  despotism  on  the  other.  Anarchy  is  the  total  dis- 
ruption of  the  social  frame-work.  Authority  is  needed  to  avert 
the  evil :  but  authority  suggests  the  danger  of  an  evil  no  less 
fatal,  the  abuse  of  authority  or  despotism,  Avhich,  under  pretense 
of  warding  off  riotous  ruin,  crushes  out  with  iron  heel  the  rights 
it  was  instituted  to  preserve.  Anarchy  and  despotism  are  the 
Scylla  and  the  Charybdis  of  the  civil  community.  Death  awaits 
it  from  either  and  will  come  as  surely  and  as  swiftly  from  one 
as    from    the    other. 

Never  in  history  was  the  difficulty  of  the  social  problem  felt  as 
keenly  as  it  is  to-day.  Society  is  most  unstable  ;  it  reels  on  its 
foundations  as  if  drunken  through  wild  passion.  At  one  moment 
its  bulwarks  are  on  the  point  of  being  shattered  into  a  thousand 
fragments  amid  the  clamorings  and  violences  of  Communists  and 
Nihilists ;  at  another  we  behokl  it  rushing  madly  with  a  shriek 
of  despair  into  the  deathly  grasp  of  military  Csesarism,  or  wor- 
shiping idolatrously  the  irresponsible  absolutism  of  the  State. 
Doctrinaires  have  lied  to  society.  Hearkening  to  them,  it  has 
renounced  the  principles  of  life  with  which  its  divine  Author  had 
endowed  it,  and  it  is  paying  the  penalty.  What  those  principles  are, 
the  Church,  the  faithful  custodian  of  the  revelation  of  God,  tells  us. 
Her  teaching  saves  society. 

Modern  social  theorists,  led  by  Hobbes  and  Rousseau,  assert  that 
by  nature  men  are  free  from  all  social  obligations,  society  being 
nothing  more  than  a  voluntary  pact  among  themselves,  having  no 
existence,  no  jiowers  except  as  derived  from  their  own  consent. 
The  powers  of  society,  mere  concessions  from  individuals,  are 
revocable  at  will,  and  bind  so  far  only  as  individuals  are  pleased 
to  recognize  them.  Society  is  a  simple  aggregation  of  men  for 
mutual  protection — rather  a  necessary  evil  ;  obedience  is  not  a 
moral  duty  :  authority  is  a  creature  of  the  aggregation,  the  mem- 
bers of  whicli  in  consequence,  Avhether  they  are  the  governing  or 
the  governed,  remain  equal  in  rights  of  all  kind,  social  as  well  as 
natural.  With  these  theorists  God  counts  for  nothing  in  society; 
He  gives  nothing  to  society,  and  social  affairs  need  have  no  refer- 
ence to  Him. 

All  this  is  false.     Only  atheists  and  materialists   may  legitimately 


14  SERJIOXS  OF  TUB  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

Avith  their  j>riuciples  propose  absurdities  of  the  kind.  The  pagans 
of  old  never  uttered  the  lilce;  their  cities  and  empires  were  sacred 
to  the  Divinity.  Reason  proclaims  that  society  is  not  a  voluntary 
pact  among  men :  it  exists  by  the  force  of  nature,  and  con- 
sequently, by  the  command  of  the  Author  of  nature.  God  may  no 
more  be  removed  from  society  than  He  may  be  from  any  part  of 
the  cosmos.  As  He  made  man  for  it,  so  He  ordained  it,  and 
"willing  the  means  together  with  the  end  He  conferred  upon  society 
the  authority  needed  for  its  preservation.  Society  is  not  a  simple 
organization  of  individuals ;  it  is  a  moral  entity  of  itself,  a  com- 
plete organism,  having  its  own  life  and  its  own  authority  not 
derived  from  and  independent  of  individual  members.  Society  is 
superior  to  individuals.  Obedience  to  it  is  obedience  to  God. 
Those  who  govern,  invested  with  power  communicated  by  God,  are 
the   superiors    of  those    over   whom    they   are   placed. 

The  forgetfulness  of  the  divine  origin  of  society  and  of  govern- 
ment leaves  no  choice  for  the   State  between  anarchy  and  despotism. 

"  By  Me,"  says  divine  Wisdom,  "  kings  reign  and  lawgivers 
decree  just  things.  By  Me  princes  rule  and  the  mighty  decree 
justice."  St.  Paul  teaches :  "  There  is  no  power  but  from  God : 
and  those  that  are,  are  ordained  of  God.  Therefore,  he  that 
resisteth  the  power  resisteth  the  ordinance  of  God.  .  .  .  For 
he  is  God's  minister  to  thee  for  good."  The  Church  repeats  the 
teachings  of  Scripture  and  sets  forth  the  practical  consequences. 
In  his  Encyclical  on  Socialism  in  1879,  the  present  Pontiff^  Leo 
XIII,  condemns  the  modern  atheistic  theory  of  society.  "  By  a 
new  sort  of  impiety,  unknown  to  the  pagans,"  he  writes,  "  States 
constitute  themselves  independently  of  God,  or  of  the  order  which 
He  has  established.  Public  authority  is  declared  to  derive  neither 
its  principle  nor  its  power  from  God,  but  from  the  multitude, 
which,  believing  itself  free  from  all  divine  sanction,  obeys  no 
laws  but  such  as  its  own  caprice  dictates."  ..."  They  (the 
Socialists)  never  cease  proclaiming  that  all  men  are  equal  in  all 
things ;  and  hence  kings  have  no  right  to  command  them,  nor 
laws  any  power  to  bind  unless  made  by  themselves  and  according 
to  their  own  inclinations.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  the  Gospel 
teaches  that  all  men  are  indeed  equal,  inasmuch  as  all  have  the 
same  natufe,  all  are  called  to  the  sublime  dignity  of  children  of 
God.     .     .     .     But   an    inequality   of    rights    and    powers    emanates 


THE  CHURCH— THE  SUPPORT  OF  JUST  GOVERNMENT.         15 

from  the  Author  of  nature  Himself,  of  whom  all  paternity  is 
named  in  heaven  and  on  earth.  ...  As  in  the  Church  He 
has  instituted  a  diversity  of  degrees  and  offices,  so  too  He  has 
established  in  civil  society  different  orders  in  dignity,  in  right 
and  power,  so  that  the  State,  like  the  Church,  might  form  one 
body  composed  of  many  members,  some  more  noble  than  others^ 
but  all  necessary  to  one  another,  and  all  laboring  for  the  common 
good."  The  words  of  the  Enclyclical,  in  view  of  what  has  already 
been  said,  need  no  comment.  It  is  plain  that  the  equality  which 
the  Pontiff  denies  is  the  social  or  political  equality  which  excludes 
the  distinction  between  the  governing  and  the  governed,  and 
annihilates  society.  When  power  is  given  by  God,  they  who 
exercise  it  are  for  the  time  being  superior  to  those  over  whom 
it  is  exercised,  however  equal  in  rights  they  may  be  as  men 
under  the  law  of  nature.  Leo  XIII  refers  again  to  social  ques- 
tions in  a  later  Encyclical  of  1884.  He  reproves  the  assertions 
of  the  Naturalists  that  "  each  one  is  by  nature  free ;"  that  "  no 
one  has  the  right  to  command  others ;"  tliat  "  to  wish  to  subject 
men  to  the  authority  of  any  one,  unless  that  authority  has  come 
to  him  from  themselves,  is  to  do  violence  to  them."  In  saying 
that  no  one  is  "  by  nature  free,"  the  Pontiff  means  that  no  one 
is  by  nature  free  from  the  la"svs  of  society,  no  more  than  he  is 
free  from  parental  authority  or  other  restrictions  to  which  nature 
subjects  him.  In  asserting  the  right  of  some  to  command  others, 
he  does  not  imply  that  some  men  have  this  right  as  something 
proper  cr  peculiar  to  them  from  nature ;  he  speaks  of  the 
acquired  social  right  belonging  to  all  legitimately  constituted  rulers 
in  society.  The  words  of  both  Encyclicals,  wrested  from  the 
context  which  indicates  clearly  their  limitation  to  political  and 
social  matters,  have  been  to  a  large  extent  misconstrued  by  the 
public  press  of  both  continents,  and  I  quote  them  at  some  length 
that   you    may  correctly  understand    them. 

I  have  stated  the  teaching  of  the  Church  on  the  origin  of 
society  and  of  government :  this  teaching  is  the  potent  break- 
water   against    anarchy,  the    sure    foundation    of  authority    in    society. 

Society  is  as  a  city  built  upon  the  mountain  Avithin  whose 
bosom  burn  a  thousand  volcanic  fires.  There  are  ten,  thirty, 
fifty  millions  of  human  beings,  diftcriug  from,  opposed  to,  one 
another     in     inclinations     and      interests.         Mutual      sacrifices      are 


16  SUBMOJS'S  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

required,  sacrifices  often  most  severe,  that  union  in  one  body 
politic  be  possible.  The  passions  of  men  know  in  their  fury  no 
control :  they  must  be  abated.  The  jjoor  envy  the  rich ; 
inferiors  hate  superiors ;  the  proud  seek  to  rise  upon  the  ruins  of 
their  fellows ;  the  strong  oppress  the  weak ;  humanity  must  be 
diverted  from  these  evil  tendencies.  To  repress  passion,  to  obtain 
that  individual  interest  be  sacrificed  to  that  of  the  common  weal — 
this  is  the  mighty  task  which  devolves  upon  authority.  Under 
the  a^gis  of  authority,  there  is  order  and  peace :  authority  dis- 
placed,   it    is    the   reveling    of  crime    and    chaos. 

Authority — do  we  pause  to  notice  facts  too  patent  ? — loses  day 
by  day  its  sacredness,  its  power.  Socialists  and  Nihilists,  whose 
lodges  honey-comb  Europe,  have  named  authority  the  enemy — the 
enemy  which  they  are  sworn  to  combat.  The  Commune  of  Paris 
mocked  it  and  spat  upon  it  amid  the  lurid  glare  of  burning  palaces 
and  the  savage  uproar  of  murderous  riot.  Things  are  better  in 
America.  Yet  Socialism  has  immigrated  to  America ;  the  mob  occa- 
sionally rules  our  cities ;  a  spirit  of  lawlessness  is  visible  in  the 
population ;  lavrs  seem  mado  to  be  broken,  and  crowds  gather 
around  the  voting  booth  to  elect  to  office  men  pledged  to  disregard 
the  edict  of  the  legislator.  The  question  is  opportune :  whither  is 
society  drifting  ?  what  protection  will  society  be  able  henceforward 
to    aiford     to     life,  liberty,    and    rights    the    most    sacred? 

Authority  is  the  safeguard ;  but  if  authority  is  to  be  something 
more  than  an  idle  name  or  a  lifeless  shadow,  we  must  establish  it 
upon    grounds    that    will    insure    reverence    and    obedience. 

Will  the  appeal  be  to  right  in  government  and  to  duty  in 
subject?  Assuredly  not,  if  society  is  cut  off  from  God,  if  gov- 
ernment has  no  power,  no  right  but  what  it  has  received  from 
the  people  constituting  it.  If  society,  as  atheistic  theorists  hold, 
is  but  the  voluntary  aggregation  of  individuals,  and  not  an  ordi- 
nance of  God,  if  the  governing  power  has  no  consecration  beyond 
the  free  acknowledgment  of  the  governed,  what  right  is  or  can 
be  violated  when  the  individual  disobeys,  or  even  withdraws  alto- 
gether from,  the  pact?  No  one  may  complain  when  all  are  equal. 
The  "sacred  right  of  insurrection,"  as  rebellion,  just  or  unjust, 
has  been  too  often  termed,  whether  against  certain  laws,  or  a  cer- 
tain government,  or  society  at  large,  is  the  inalienable  possession 
of    each    person.     Indeed,    there    is    never    rebellion,    because    there 


THE  CHURCH— THE  SUPPORT  OF  JUST  GOVERNMENT.         17 

exists  no  authority  above  the  individual  himself.  Rousseau's  theory 
of  society  is  political  Protestantism,  the  supremacy  of  the  indi- 
vidual; and  as  in  Protestantism  there  can  be  no  religious  heresy, 
so  in  Rosseau's  principles  there  can  be  no  social  rebellion.  The 
ruler  who  would  constrain  the  individual  is  a  tyrant,  assuming 
power  not  vested  in  him.  The  majority  of  his  fellows,  were  they 
in  the  name  of  number  to  strive  against  him,  are  tyrants.  Mere 
numbers  give  no  power  over  others,  except  the  power  such  as 
robbers  and  murderers  claim.  Right  does  not  and  cannot  exist 
under  the  terms  of  the  "  Social  Contract."  No  wonder  is  it  that 
authority  is  called  the  enemy.  Xo  wonder  is  it  that  the  French 
Revolution,  with  all  the  horrors  of  Jacobinism,  followed  the  spread 
through  France  of  Rosseau's  teachings.  The  statue  of  the  Genevan 
philosopher,  standing  out  from  his  sarcophagus  in  the  Pantheon, 
represents  him  befittingly  as  holding  in  his  right  hand  a  burning 
torch.  It  is  the  torch  of  revolution,  of  social  destruction  and 
social    ruin. 

Perhaps  self-interest  will  take  the  place  of  duty  and  compel 
men  to  submit  to  authority.  The  vainest  of  illusions !  Why,  it 
is  self-interest  that  begets  opposition  to  law  and  authority.  Talk 
of  self-interest  to  the  ambitious,  the  vengeful,  the  licentious !  Talk 
of  self-interest  to  the  millions  hopelessly  doomed  to  unceasing  labor, 
to  suffering  and  to  want !  Talk  of  self-interest  to  the  many  who 
bear  the  burdens  of  society,  while  the  glitter  and  the  pleasure 
belong  to  the  few !  Say,  if  you  wish,  that  whatever  becomes  of 
the  present  time  and  the  present  individual,  the  ultimate  interest 
of  the  race,  the  general  good  of  the  commonwealth,  is  secured 
by  this  labor  and  this  suffering.  Philosophers  may  in  their  easy 
chairs  dream  of  such  remote  results;  the  masses  do  not  make 
sacrifices   for   them. 

Will  physical  force  be  invoked?  This  is  on  occasions  a  conve- 
nient and  effective  solution  of  the  difficulty.  Cannon  and  dragoons 
will  do  much  towards  scattering  a  mob ;  prison  and  exile  will 
thin  the  ranks  of  rebels ;  the  silence  of  death  may  be  called 
peace.  But  what  is  physical  force  if  not  despotism  most  execrable, 
a  hundred  times  more  galling  and  degrading  than  the  wildest 
anarchy?  Order  purchased  by  despotism  is  too  high-priced  that 
we  should  desire  it.  Besides,  it  will  be  of  but  short  duration. 
Despotism  intensifies   opposition ;     it   stimulates    hidden    plottings  and 


18  SUR210XS   OF   TUB  THIRD   PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

terrible  reactions.  Governments,  alas !  too  often  lend  a  helping 
hand  to  social  atheism,  fancying  that  armies  and  bayonets  will  suf- 
fice   for    their    maintenance.      "And    now,    O    ye    kings,    understand : 

receive    instruction,    you    that   judge    the   earth When 

His  wrath  shall  be  kindled  in  a  short  time,  blessed  are  all  they 
that  shall  trust  in  Ilim."  A  godless  people  will  swiftly  demolish 
the    stoutest    bastiles. 

Well,  in  the  name  of  God's  Church,  I  will  say  Avhither  the 
appeal  shall  be  made.  Tell  men  that  there  is  a  God  in  Israel,  that 
authority  is  divine,  that  God's  majesty  encircles  with  its  rays  the 
legislators  and  rulers  of  nations.  Tell  them  that  they  who  govern 
on  earth  are  indeed  human,  but  that  back  of  them  stands  the 
Eternal,  making  their  laws  His  own,  whom  to  serve  is  kingly  honor, 
towards  whom  reverence  is  highest  duty.  God  is  the  Creator  of 
man,  his  Master,  and  God's  will  is  our  supreme  guidance.  Then 
make  the  appeal  to  man's  conscience,  that  divine  sense  in  him 
which  re-echoes  the  divine  command,  the  sole  moral  power  on  earth, 
the  sole  power  that  can  repress  passion,  whether  in  the  individual  or 
in  society.  Make  the  appeal  to  conscience — the  sacrifice  is  sweet ; 
there    is    peace    in    obedience ;    the    sword    may    seek    its    scabbard. 

The  Church  teaches  with  St.  Paul  that  disobedience  to  civil  law 
is  a  sin.  "  He  tliat  resisteth  the  power,  resisteth  the  ordinance  of 
God,  and  they  that  resist  purchase  to  themselves  damnation.  .  .  . 
Wherefore  be  subject  of  necessity,  not  only  for  wrath,  but  also  for 
conscience'  sake."  In  the  eyes  of  the  Church  loyalty  to  country  is 
loyalty  to  God ;  patriotism  is  a  heavenly  virtue,  a  high  form  of 
holy  obedience ;  the  patriot  dying  for  his  country  wears  the  halo 
of  the  martyr.  The  Catholic  Church  commands,  blesses,  consecrates 
patriotism.        The    true    Catholic    must    needs    be    the    truest    patriot. 

Nations,  did  they  but  know  what  is  for  their  Avelfare,  should 
have  written  in  letters  of  gold  the  Encyclicals  of  Leo.  His  words 
M'ill  save  society.  High  above  the  storm  that  threatens  devas- 
tation to  all  social  fabrics  his  voice  rises,  even  as  the  voice  of  the 
Master  amid  the  winds  of  Genesareth,  bidding  us  not  to  fear, 
and  indicating  the  means  of  salvation.  And  thus  will  it  ever  be. 
So  long  as  Peter's  throne  rests  on  the  Vatican,  so  long  will 
testimony  be  given  to  truth,  and  the  principles  of  order  and 
authority    will    be    proclaimed    to    the    nations    of  the    earth. 

And     now,    authority     secured,    I   will     speak     the     word    which 


THE  CHURCH— THE  SUPPORT  OF  JUST  GOVERNMENT.         19 

in  your  hearts  j'ou  desire  to  hear  from  my  lips,  which  will  sound 
as  magic  to  your  ears — a  word,  the  inspiration  of  a  thousand 
battle-fields,  which  names  the  dream  of  nations,  the  ideal  to  them 
of  temporal  grandeur  and  felicity — liberty!  Did  you  think  that 
in  my  zeal  for  authority  I  Avas  forgetting  liberty?  Believe  me, 
I,  too,  love  liberty.  With  deep  emotion  I  speak  the  word,  and 
I  speak  it  this  evening  with  most  confident  affection,  because, 
standing  in  a  Catholic  pulpit,  I  can  establish  it  upon  ever-enduring 
foundations — the    eternal    principles    of  divine    truth. 

Do  not  imagine  a  conflict  between  liberty  and  authority. 
License  sacrilegiously  calls  itself  liberty,  "making  liberty  a  cloak 
for  malice ;"  despotism  dares  usurp  the  holy  name  of  authority, 
and  the  conflict  is  between  license  and  authority  as  it  is  between 
despotism  and  liberty.  Liberty  and  authority  are  one.  Liberty 
presupposes  and  follows  from  authority;  authority  has  liberty  for 
its  object.  Liberty  is  the  untrammeled  use  of  one's  powers  and 
faculties;  it  is,  so  to  speak,  the  ownership  of  itself;  hence,  we 
all  cherish  it.  It  is,  at  the  same  time,  the  j)0ssibility  of  self- 
expansion  and  self-aggrandizement — the  spring  of  movement  and 
progress  in  society;  hence,  nations  consider  it  their  most  precious 
inheritance.  But  that ;  this  ownership  of  self,  this  expansion  of 
one's  faculties,  be  possible,  protection  is  required  against  the 
invasion  of  the  wayward  and  the  malefactor;  authority  gives  this 
protection.  Authority,  furthermore,  combines  into  one  force  the 
energies  of  the  many,  and  renders  individual  rights  the  more 
fruitful  and  progress  the  more  certain.  Liberty,  outside  of 
authority,  is  the  freedom  of  wild  beasts  to  devour  one  another. 
"  Appoint,  O  Lord,"  says  the  Psalmist,  "  a  lawgiver  over  them, 
that  they  may  know  themselves  to  be  men."  Authority  impeding 
liberty!  Do  tlie  hillsides,  nature's  barriers,  by  confining  within 
their  bed  the  waters  of  the  mighty  Mississippi  lest  they  divide 
over  adjacent  lowlands  into  shallow  and  murky  marshes  imjDcde 
their  free  and  majestic  flow  or  diminish  their  strength  and  beauty 
in  their  course  to  the  ocean  ?  Who  they  are  that  should  dread 
authority  St.  Paul  tells  us  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  from 
which  I  have  already  quoted :  "  Wilt  thou,  then,  be  afraid  of 
the  power  ?  Do  that  which  is  good,  and  thou  shalt  have  praise 
from  the  same ;  for  he  is  God's  minister  to  thee  for  good.  But 
if  thou    do    that  which   is    evil,  fear,  for   he    beareth   not   the    sword 


20  SERMONS  OF   THE  THIRD   PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

ill  vain :  an  avenger  to  execute  wrath  upon  him  who  doeth  evil." 
Tlic  sacrifices  which  authority  demands  from  the  good  and  the 
well-disposed  in  the  community  are  a  hundredfold  compensated 
for  in  the  advantages  they  obtain  and  the  security  accorded  to 
them.  While  authority  is  sacred,  liberty  is  safe;  Mhcn  authority 
is    assailed,    a    death-blow    lias    been    leveled    at    liberty. 

"  There  is  no  power  but  from  God ;  and  those  that  are,  are 
ordained  of  God."  The  same  principle  of  Catholic  teaching  which 
consecrates  authority  confines  it  to  just  limits.  If  civil  power  is 
from  God,  it  is  to  be  used  for  the  purposes  intended  by  God — 
the  preservation  of  society,  the  defence  of  rights  of  individuals  and 
families.  Beyond  those  purposes  rulers  have  no  power,  and,  when 
their  acts  unjustly  invade  the  rights  they  were  appointed  to  protect, 
they    are    in    opposition    to    God. 

The  Catholic  Church  the  enemy  of  liberty !  This  lias  been  said, 
but  with  what  truth  I  will  ask  you  to  judge  after  I  will  have 
made  a  few  further  statements  as  to  her  principles  on  civil 
authority,    and   the    use    to    be    made    of  it. 

Authority,  I  have  said  is  from  God,  and  civil  governments 
rule  by  right  divine.  But  remark  in  what  way,  according  to 
Catholic  teaching,  civil  governments  are  constituted.  God  does  not 
appoint  for  a  people  a  particular  form  of  government,  as  he  has 
done  for  instance  in  the  case  of  the  Church,  nor  does  he  select 
the  particular  men  who  are  to  wield  authority.  All  this  is 
remitted  to  the  people.  They  select  the  ruler  and  make  choice  of 
the  form  of  government :  God  vests  in  tile  people's  candidates  the 
sovereignty,  subject  to  the  conditions  and  limitations  with  which  they 
have  circumscribed  it.  There  are  no  kings  or  rulers  by  divine 
right  in  the  sense  that  specified  men  or  families  are  directly  called 
by  God  to  reign,  or  that  specified  governments  arc  authorized 
by  Him.  Rulers  govern  by  the  will  of  the  people,  and  derive 
their  just  powers  from  the  consent  of  the  governed  in  the  sense 
that  the  consent,  the  choice,  of  the  governed  is  the  condition  upon 
which    heaven    conveys    authority. 

The  principle  of  the  intervention  of  tne  people  in  the  selec- 
tion of  their  government  is  the  primary  constituent  of  civil  liberty. 
The  people  decide  for  themselves  in  what  manner  sovereignty  shall 
be  exercised  over  them  :  they  are  parties  to  the  contract  with 
their    rulers.     They   decree    whether    the    full    sovereignty    shall     be 


THE  CHURCH— THE  SUPPORT  OF  JUST  GOVERNMENT.         21 

confided  to  one  person  or  divided  between  several ;  whether  a 
ruler  shall  hold  office  for  a  number  of  years  or  for  his  life-time ; 
whether  his  sovereignty  shall  be  concluded  Mith  himself  or  trans- 
mitted by  him  to  his  heirs.  Room  is  made  for  an  absolute  mon- 
arch, for  a  king  with  lords  and  commons,  for  a  jiresident  with 
senators  and  representatives,  as  the  nation  may  sec  fit  to  elect. 
"There  is  no  prohibition  to  nations,  the  rules  of  justice  being 
otherwise  observed,"  says  Leo  XIII  in  his  Encyclical  of  June,  1881, 
"  to  choose  for  themselves  that  sort  of  government  which  befits 
their  temper  or  accords  with  the  traditions  and  customs  of  their 
race."  Republic,  monarchy,  empire  —  all  fare  alike  before  the 
Church;  the  authority  in  all  is  divine,  and  obedience  towards  all 
is   obligatory. 

Let  me,  however,  make  some  observations  in  order  that  Catho- 
lic teaching  be  in  nothing  misunderstood.  The  choice  once  made, 
the  conditions  of  the  government  once  traced,  the  people  cannot, 
at  will,  through  mere  whim  or  fancy,  dethrone  their  rulers  or 
revoke  their  constitutions.  Stability  is  an  essential  element  of 
order  in  society,  and  changes,  without  the  gravest  reasons,  destroy 
stability.  Society,  a  divinely  ordained  institution,  may  not  commit 
suicide ;  no  right  is  conceded  to  prince  or  to  people,  to  the  mul- 
titude collectively  or  distributively,  that  tears  down  instead  of 
building  up  the  social  frame-work.  When  mention  is  made  of  the 
intervention  of  the  people,  we  are  to  understand  the  people  at 
large,  as  they  express  the  general  national  will,  not  individuals 
singly  or  parcels  of  individuals.  Once  chosen  directly  or  indirectly 
by  the  people  and  invested  with  divine  power,  civil  rulers  are, 
in  fact  and  right,  the  superiors  of  those  whom  they  govern,  and 
they  should  act  for  the  general  good  as  their  consciences  dictate ; 
they  are  not  the  mere  mouth-pieces  of  subjects  to  repeat  their 
orders,  the  mere  servants  of  their  constituents  to  obey"  their  whims. 
The  sovereignty  resides  in  them,  and  not  in  the  pcojile,  and  upon 
them    lies    the    responsibility    for    the    ])roper    exercise    tliereof. 

Listen  now,  while  I  repeat  in  the  words  of  tlie  "  Angel  of 
the  Schools "  the  principles  of  the  Church  on  the  use  and  the 
extent  of  sovereignty :  "  Law  is  a  rule  dictated  by  reason,  the 
aim  of  which  is  the  public  good,  and  promulgated  by  him  who 
has  the  care  of  society."  "  The  Avill  to  have  the  force  of  law 
must   be   guided   by    reason.       In    this    sense    only    can    the   will   of 


22  seemoj^s  of  tub  third  plenary  council. 

a  sovereign  be  said  to  have  the  force  of  law ;  in  any  other  sense 
it  would  not  be  law,  but  injustice."  "Human  laws,  if  they  are 
just,  are  l)inding  in  conscience,  and  they  derive  their  power  from 
the  eternal  law  from  Avhich  they  are  formed."  "  Laws  may  be 
unjust  in  two  ways,  either  by  being  opposed  to  the  common  weal 
or  by  having  an  improper  aim,  as  when  a  government  imposes 
upon  its  subjects  onerous  laws,  which  do  not  serve  the  common 
interest,  but  rather  cupidity  and  ambition ;  or  on  account  of  their 
author,  as  Avhen  one  makes  a  law  beyond  the  power  vested  in 
him.  Such  laws  are  rather  outrages  than  laws."  "  The  kingdom 
is  not  made  for  the  king,  but  the  king  for  the  kingdom ;  for 
God  has  constituted  kings  to  rule  and  govern,  and  to  secure  to 
every  one  tlie  possession  of  his  rights ;  such  is  the  aim  of  their 
institution ;  but  if  kings,  turning  things  to  their  own  profit,  should 
act  otherwise  they  are  no  longer  kings  but  tyrants.".  (St.  Thomas, 
"  De  Leg.  et  de  Reg.  Princ,"  jpassim.)  Never  were  words  more 
grand  written  on  civil  liberty  than  those  penned  by  Aquinas. 
According  to  the  principles  laid  down  by  him,  all  power  is  from 
God :  God  grants  no  power  to  rulers  against  Himself.  His  own 
laws,  the  supreme  dictates  of  righteousness  and  goodness,  must  never 
be  violated.  In  their  official,  as  well  as  in  their  private  life,  rulers 
are  subject  to  them.  God  is  "  the  King  of  kings  and  the  Lord  of 
lords,"  and  nations,  as  well  as  individuals,  are  His  creatures. 
Human  laws  contradicting  the  divine  have  no  binding  power  :  "  They 
are  rather  injustices  than  laws."  The  "higher  law"  limits  all  civil 
power.  Even  the  monarch  who  could  say  in  his  mightiness,  "  I  am 
the  State,"  had  to  hear  the  solemn  monition  :  "  Hitherto  thou  shalt 
come,  and  thou  shalt  go  no  further."  Amid  apparent  absolutism  an 
impregnable  citadel  remains  to  liberty — the  conscience,  whose  cry  of 
Mar  against  tyranny  has  never  been  stilled  in  the  world  since  the 
first  prince  of  the  Church  exclaimed  in  Jerusalem:  "If  it  be  just 
in  the  sight  of  God  to  hear  you  rather  than  God,  judge  ye." 
Nor  is  this  all.  Civil  power  in  tlie  hands  of  rulers  is  a  trust, 
the  aim  of  which  is  the  public  good ;  reason  must  direct  its  use. 
The  good  pleasure  of  the  sovereign  docs  not  make  law.  The  State 
is  not  for  the  ruler,  but  the  ruler  is  for  the  State.  The  maxim 
of  tlie  Roman  poet  is  false — that  "  tlie  human  race  lives  for  the 
])rofit  of  the  few."  In  the  intent  of  the  trust  the  ruler  becomes 
the    servant  of  the  people,    and    when  he    does  not    serve    them,    but 


THE  CHURCH— THE  SUPPORT  OF  JUST  G0VERN3IENT.         23 

heeds  rather  his  ambition,  his  pride,  his  cupidity,  he  is  a  tyrant, 
and  his  lawo  are  "injustices,"  "outrages."  Equally  despotic  is  the 
ruler  who  violates  the  conditions  upon  which  he  was  chosen  by 
the  people  as  their  superior ;  he  is  bound  as  much  as  they  by 
the  fundamental  laws,  written  or  traditional,  by  the  charter  or  con- 
stitution of  the  nation.  Authority  deserves  obedience  only  when 
"  deriving  its  power  from  the  eternal  law."  Otherwise  the  nimbus 
of  divine  majesty  vanishes  from  the  ruler's  brow.  The  human 
remains ;  the  human  demanding  to  reign  is  despotism,  and  obedi- 
ence to  it  were  slavery.  This,  assuredly,  is  civil  liberty — law  "  a 
rule  dictated  by  reason,  the  aim  of  which  is  the  public  good."  This 
is  liberty  in  its  truest,  fullest  measure.  Liberty  we  take  to  be 
the  alliance  of  social  protection  and  individual  rights  with  as  little 
curtailment  of  the  latter  as  the  case  may  permit.  The  Catholic 
definition    of  law    is    the    consecration    of  this    alliance. 

The  zeal  of  theologians  for  liberty  goes  farther  than  to  call 
the  edicts  of  despotism  injustices  and  outrages,  and  to  declare  that 
they  do  not  bind  in  conscience.  A  revolution,  the  dethronement 
of  power,  the  Church  holds,  and  rightly,  to  be  a  fearful  occur- 
rence. Society  quakes  from  the  shock  to  its  deepest  foundations ; 
with  difficulty  will  it  ever  recover  its  equipoise;  and  yet,  when 
despotism  lowers  its  heavy  hand  over  a  people,  and  representation, 
counsel  and  entreaty  fail  to  ward  it  off,  the  nation — rather  tlian 
let  liberty  die  for  evermore — may,  we  are  told,  rise  up  with  all 
its  miglit  and,  in  a  supreme  effort  for  life,  hurl  against  despotism 
the  thunders  of  war.  Tliis  right  belongs  not  to  an  individual  nor 
to  a  few ;  the  people  only  may  say  when  the  time  for  insurrection 
has  come.  "  In  extreme  circumstances,"  says  Balmcs,  "  non-resistance 
is  not  a  dogmatical  prescription.  The  Church  has  never  taught 
such  a  doctrine;  if  any  one  will  maintain  that  she  has,  let  him 
bring  forward  a  decision  of  a  council  or  of  a  Sovereign  Pontiff 
to  that  effect.  St.  Thomas  of  Aquin,  Cardinal  Bellarmine,  Suares, 
and  other  eminent  theologians  were  well-versed  in  the  dogmas  of 
the  Church ;  and  yet,  if  you  consult  their  works,  so  far  from 
finding  this  doctrine  in  them,  you  will  find  the  opposite  one." 
"  Bossuet  and  other  authors  of  repute,"  Balmes  adds,  "  differ  from 
St.  Thomas,  Ballarmine,  and  Suares ;  and  this  gives  credit  to  the 
opposite  opinion,  but  does  not  convert  it  into  a  dogma.  Upon 
certain  points  of  the  highest  import  the  opinions  of  Bossuet  suf- 
fered   contradiction." 


24  SFRMOIfS  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

Those  principles  of  Catholic  teaching  are  the  very  core  of  the 
tree  of  civil  liberty.  They  give  us  the  substance,  nothing  that 
is  merely  external  and  superficial,  as  we  too  often  receive  where 
professions  are  the  loudest.  The  world  is  easily  deceived :  words 
win  above  realities.  Liberty  is  bidden  to  cast  the  veil  of  its 
name  now  over  anarchy  and  again  over  despotism.  Be  the  name 
what  it  may,  there  is  no  liberty  where  law  is  not  the  dictate  of 
reason,  and  where  it  is  there  needs  must  be  liberty.  External 
forms  of  government,  so  far  as  true  liberty  is  concerned,  are 
largely  accidental :  they  neither  create  nor  necessarily  impede  liberty. 
The  spirit  of  the  people  is  of  incomparably  greater  importance 
than  the  form  of  their  government.  An  empire  or  a  monarchy 
may  secure  tlie  fulness  of  liberty  to  the  subject,  and  despotism 
may  reign  in  a  republic.  The  republic  may  in  the  name  of  brutal 
numbers,  ignore  justice,  prostitute  to  private  ends  the  public  power, 
trample  under  foot  the  rights  of  minorities,  and  with  liberty's  own 
wand  crush  out  her  life.  An  American  publicist  says  of  repre- 
sentative democracy :  "  The  tyranny  of  tlie  majority  is  worse  than 
the  tyranny  of  one  man  or  a  few  men,  because  it  has  no 
restraint."  Gibbon  says  of  the  expiring  republic  of  Rome :  "  The 
provinces,  weary  of  the  oppressive  ministers  of  the  republic,  were 
willing  to  submit  to  the  authority  of  a  single  master ; "  and  never 
were  the  rights  of  minorities  and  of  individuals  more  unscrupu- 
lously sacrificed  than  in  the  recent  repu])lics  of  a  Gambetta  in 
France  and  a  Castelar  in  Spain.  The  foulest  form  of  despotism — 
Statolatry  or  the  deification  of  the  State — is  a  temptation  of  all 
forms  of  government.  The  despotic  State,  be  it  called  monarchy 
or  republic,  allows  no  higher  authority  than  itself;  it  assumes  to  be 
the  supreme  arbiter  of  right  and  wrong,  of  the  spiritual  and  the 
temporal,  controlling  the  school  and  the  Church,  thought  and  con- 
science, as  it  docs  army  maneuverings  and  real  estate  taxation, 
and  refusing  the  recognition  of  all  right,  except  what  its  own. will 
authorizes.  It  is  the  most  complete  incarnation  of  despotism.  The 
pagan  State  was  nearly  always  constituted  on  this  basis,  and  con- 
sistently with  the  doctrine  the  ^' jpatria "  received  divine  honors. 
Our  own  too  popular  maxim,  "  Vox  populi,  vox  Dei,"  is  a  form 
of  Statolatry,  implying  that  the  sovereign  people  can  never  do 
wrong,  and  that  their  will  is  the  highest  law.  Modern  political 
Socialism,    now    so    vigorously   striving    in    the    very    name  of  liberty 


THE  CHURCH— THE  SUPPORT  OF  JUST  GOVERNMENT.         25 

for  supremacy,  goes  beyond  the  claims  of  the  pagan  State,  assert- 
ing that  the  State  is  all  in  all,  and  the  individual  nothing — 
the  individual  having  no  right  to  own  property,  to  speak,  to  think, 
to  train  his  childrei\  except  as  the  State  directs  and  allows  in 
the  supposed  interest  of  the  common  good.  Never,  perhaps,  more 
than  in  our  century  has  it  been  necessary  to  keep  before  the  minds 
of    men    the    vital    principles    of  civil    liberty. 

The  value  of  Catholic  principles  is  not  realized  by  considering 
their  intrinsic  truth  and  beauty.  We  have  to  consider,  in  addi- 
tion, the  power  of  the  living  organism  which  thinks  them  and 
proclaims  them.  The  principles  of  civil  liberty  taught  by  the 
Church  can  never  become  in  the  world  a  dead  letter :  they  are 
never  allowed  to  be  forgotten  by  men.  No  tyrant  can  shelve 
them  with  the  tomes  on  whose  pages  they  might  be  inscribed, 
as  he  would  the  sayings  of  philosophers,  beyond  the  reach  and 
the  hearing  of  his  subjects.  They  palpitate  with  the  vigorous  life 
of  mother  Church,  whose  noble  progeny  they  are.  Their  voice 
surges  in  far-reaching  waves  from  the  Enclyclicals  of  Popes,  the 
lectures  of  doctors,  the  sermons  of  humblest  pastors.  It  reaches 
down  to  the  poorest  peasant  and  to  the  most  oppressed  slave, 
and  begets  in  their  souls  a  sense  of  right,  a  spirit  of  personal 
dignity  and  of  manly  independence.  It  passes  through  the  serried 
ranks  of  satellites  which  encircle  the  throne  of  the  tyrant  and 
rings  into  his  ear  notes  of  terror,  reminding  him  of  the  penalty 
of  despotic  wrong-doing.  It  reaches  through  every  age  and  over 
every  land.  The  spirit  of  liberty  is  Catholic  and  immortal,  because 
its    parent    and    guardian    is    the    Church    Catholic    and    immortal. 

Objection  has  been  raised  in  the  name  of  the  State  against 
the  Catholic  Church  as  if  she  interfered  with  the  duties  of  citizen- 
ship by  dividing  the  allegiance  of  subjects.  No  less  a  name  than 
that  of  William  E.  Gladstone  has  been  connected  with  this  objec- 
tion. We  cannot  but  wonder  that  it  was  ever  raised.  There  is 
no  ground  for  it.  "  Render  to  Ccesar  the  things  that  are  Cnesar's, 
and  to  God  the  things  that  are  God's" — this  is  a  supreme  rule 
of  Catholic  policy.  Reserving  strictly  to  her  own  direct  jurisdiction 
the  things  that  are  God's,  the  Church  has  never  sought — she  can 
never  without  manifest  contradiction  seek  —  to  interpose  in  the 
things  that  are  Csesar's.  The  temporal  administration,  the  practical 
methods     of    government,    are     matters     for     the     State     exclusively. 


2Q  SFEJIO^^S  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

The  Church  simply  proclaims  the  principles  of  justice  and  of 
morality  which  are  binding  upon  men,  whether  as  individuals 
or  as  communities.  To  bid  her  be  silent  is  to  make  the 
State  supreme  alike  in  morals  and  in  secular  concerns,  and 
to  remove  all  restraint  from  despotism.  No  remedy  would  be 
found  in  substituting  for  the  teaching  of  the  Church  the  individual 
conscience  uninstructed  save  by  the  light  of  private  reason.  This 
on  the  one  hand  would  establish  each  individual  the  judge  of  the 
State  and  open  the  door  to  anarchy,  and  on  the  other  by  leaving 
the  individual  alone  and  unprotected  it  facilitates  the  triumph  of 
despotism  over  the  country.  There  is  gain  both  for  authority 
and  for  liberty  in  the  existence  of  a  spiritual  power  which,  in 
God's  name,  gives  final  sentence  upon  principles  of  religion  and  of 
morals. 

Among  the  brightest  pages  of  history,  and  the  most  honorable 
for  the  human  race,  are  those  which  tell  the  battles  of  the  Church 
in  defence  of  liberty.  She  fought  for  the  possession  by  her- 
self of  liberty.  Never  did  the  Catholic  Church  bend  the  neck 
under  the  yoke  of  temporal  prince.  She  held  directly  from  Christ, 
and  she  permitted  ho  sovereign  of  earth  to  rule  over  her.  The 
ambition  of  tyrants  was  ever  to  enslave  the  spiritual  power.  In 
imperial  Rome  the  ruler  was  at  the  same  time  "  imperator "  and 
"  j)ontifcx'^  —  the  high-priest  and  the  commander-in-chief  of  the 
armies.  The  pagan  union  of  the  two  powers  was  often  coveted 
in  Christendom.  Henry  IV,  in  Germany,  took  upon  himself  to 
dispose  of  the  bishop's  crozier  as  he  would  of  the  vassal's  sword. 
Henry  II,  in  England,  allowed  in  his  kingdom  no  rights  to  tlie 
Church  not  deriving  from  his  own  will.  This  was  the  tyranny 
in  later  years  of  Henry  VIII,  King  and  Pope  of  England,  and 
in  our  own  days,  of  Chancellor  Von  Bismarck,  of  Prussia,  whose 
May  laws  make  the  State  as  powerful  in  the  sanctuary  as  in  the 
military  garrison  or  the  revenue  bureau.  The  victory  always 
remained  with  the  Church;  it  was  no  more  her  own  victory  than 
the  victory  of  civil  liberty.  It  was  not  the  hatred  of  religion  that 
led  rulers  to  war  with  the  Church :  it  was  the  hatred  of  liberty. 
They  could  not  brook  the  existence  of  a  power  independent  of 
them,  to  which  their  people  could  appeal,  which  reminded  subjects 
that  there  is  a  limit  to  the  authority  of  masters.  Coesar  was  not 
omnipotent,    so    long   as    the    Church    refused    him    "  the    empire    of 


THE  CHURCH— THE  SUPPORT  OF  JUST  G0VERN2IENT.         27 

minds,"  and  he  raged  against  the  Church.  Fortunately  a  Canossa 
ever  awaited  him,  and  liberty  Avas  saved  to  the  Avorld.  "  But  for 
the  intervention  of  the  Papacy,"  says  a  Protestant  writer  in  the 
Edinburgh  Review,  alluding  to  the  excommunication  of  Henry  IV 
by  Pope  Gregory  VII,  "  the  vassal  of  the  West  and  the  serf  of 
Eastern  Europe  would,  perhaps,  to  this  day  be  in  the  same  state 
of  social  debasement,  and  military  autocrats  would  occupy  the  place 
of  paternal    and    constitutional    governments." 

The  Church  fought  the  battles  of  personal  liberty  against  slavery 
and  serfdom.  The  "rights  of  man"  were  first  made  known  to  the 
world  by  her  Pontiffs  and  her  councils.  Her  dogma  of  a  common 
brotherhood  under  the  one  divine  paternity  struck  to  the  ground  the 
manacles  which  heartless  man  "vvas  always  too  willing  to  impose 
upon  his  weak  fellow.  No  social  law  or  feudal  caste  could  long 
resist  the  example  of  the  great  Church  that  never  refused  her  own 
dignities  to  slave  and  serf,  and  that  placed  them,  when  her  own 
princely  insignia  waved  from  their  shoulders,  in  social  rank  above 
the  highest  lord  and  lady  in  the  land.  "In  1167,"  says  Voltaire, 
"  Pope  Alexander  III  declared  in  the  name  of  the  council  that  all 
Christians  should  be  exempt  from  slavery."  "  This  laAv,"  adds  the 
same  writer,  "  alone  should  render  his  memory  dear  to  all  people." 
In  the  same  spirit  Gregory  XVI,  during  our  own  century,  raised 
his  powerful  protest  against  the  African  slave  trade,  and  led  the 
way  to  the  total  abolition  of  negro  slavery  in  civilized  lands. 

The  Church  fought  the  battles  of  civil  liberty.  During  the 
Middle  Ages  she  was  recognized  as  the  arbiter  of  nations :  her 
Popes  judged  and  deposed  sovereigns.  They  always  acted  in  the 
interest  of  the  people,  in  the  interest  of  civil  liberty.  Report  comes 
to  us  that  Philip,  Henry,  Frederick,  oppresses  his  subjects — this 
the  usual  tenor  of  the  pontifical  letters  bringing  sovereigns  to  trial, 
and  telling  the  world  in  thundering  tones  that  right  is  above  might, 
and  that  despotism  is  a  crime  of  high  treason  against  society. 
The  solemn  condemnation  of  a  Barbarossa  or  a  Henry  sufficed 
to  thrill  all  Christendom  with  the  spirit  of  liberty,  and  to  awaken 
from  their  slumbers  all  rights  of  humanity,  whether  in  high  or 
low  estate.  The  result  was  that  in  the  Middle  Ages,  as  Mon- 
talembert  expresses  it,  "the  world  was  bristling  with  liberty.  The 
spirit  of  resistance,  the  sentiment  of  individual  right,  penetrated 
it    entirely;   and    it    is    this    which    always    and    everywhere    consti- 


28  SEEITONS  OF  TEE  THIRD  PLEXARY  COUNCIL. 

tutes  the  essence  of  freedom."  Feudalism  was  at  the  time  strongly- 
entrenched  in  Europe,  and  opposed  powerful  obstacles  to  the  develop- 
ment of  liberty.  The  Church  was  alone  capable  of  resisting  its 
influences.  "  If  the  Christian  Church  had  not  existed,"  says 
Guizot  ("  Hist,  de  la  Civil.,"  2e  lecon),  "  the  entire  world  would 
have  been  delivered  up  to  mere  material  force.  The  Church  alone 
exercised  a  moral  power."  Hume  himself  writes  ("  Hist,  of  the 
House  of  Tudor ")  that  without  the  Papacy  "  all  Europe  would 
have  fallen  very  early  into  one  or  many  caliphates,  and  would 
have  submitted  infallibly  and  disgracefully  to  Turkish  sway  and 
to    Oriental    oppression    and    stupefaction." 

Strange  fortune  of  the  Catholic  Church !  She  battled  for  cen- 
turies in  giant  warfare,  and  saved  Europe  to  liberty,  and  yet  the 
accusation  has  gone  abroad  against  her  that  she  befriends  despotism 
and  crushes  out  free  institutions.  Her  work  for  liberty,  for  civiliza- 
tion, for  progress  was  culminating  in  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  when  Protestantism  appeared  on  the  horizon  and  the  credit 
of  a  long  and  tedious  work  of  ages  has  been  awarded  to  the  new 
religion. 

Protestanism  did  nothing  for  liberty.  It  introduced  into  the 
world  no  one  new  principle  that  favored  liberty.  Its  claim  to 
private  judgment  in  religion  was  religious  anarchy;  if  it  was 
anything  in  civil  and  political  matters,  it  was  political  anarchy, 
the  reaction  from  which  always  leads  to  despotism.  Protestantism 
is  not  an  organized  force,  and  its  contribution  of  positive  power 
to  any  cause  must  necessarily  be  next  to  nothing :  whatever  Is 
seemingly  done  under  its  sway  is  done  by  other  causes  than 
itself.  It  weakened  the  elements  of  resistance  to  the  encroachments 
of  despotism  by  dividing  them,  and  as  a  fact  despotism  followed 
everywhere  in  the  wake  of  its  earliest  advances.  Never  during- 
Christian  ages,  except  in  Protestant  countries,  was  the  subjection 
of  the  spiritual  to  the  temporal  an  accomplished  fact.  The  Pro- 
testant prince  was  made  the  head  of  the  Church  in  his  realm, 
and  he  ruled  souls  as  well  as  bodies.  Henry  VIII  became  the 
keeper  of  the  consciences  of  the  people  of  England;  his  daughter 
Elizabeth  demanded  more  servile  obedience  from  her  bishops  than 
from  her  lieutenants  and  her  sheriffs,  and  Gustavus  Adolphus 
was  equally  despotic  over  the  Church  in  Sweden.  In  Protestant 
Germany  the   political   maxim   prevailed,    "  cujus   rcg'io    illius  rellgio/' 


TEE  CEUBCE—TEE  SUPPORT  OF  JUST  GOVERNMENT.         29 

and  every  petty  prince  shaped  out  in  his  cabinet  dogmas  and 
rules  of  morals  which  subjects  had  to  accept  or  lose  their  heads. 
The  doctrine  of  passive  resistance,  according  to  which  a  prince, 
however  despotic,  can  never  be  dethroned,  was  brought  into  its 
greatest  prominence  by  Anglican  divines  under  James  I,  and 
however  much  Guizot,  a  Protestant,  praises  the  Reformation,  he 
is  compelled  to  confess  that  as  a  fact  "  absolute  monarchy  tri- 
umphed simultaneously  with  it  throughout  Europe."  No ;  Protest- 
antism retarded  instead  of  advancing  the  growth  of  liberty.  If 
in  later  times  liberty  has  asserted  herself  in  Protestant  lands,  she 
but  recovered  by  her  own  energies  her  pristine  vigor,  and  wherever 
to-day  she  thrives  her  strength  conies  to  her  from  the  principles 
proclaimed  and  defended  during  the  whole  course  of  the  Christian 
era   by  the    Catholic    Church. 

The  relations  of  political  to  civil  liberty  I  take  to  be  as  those 
of  a  means  to  an  end.  I  call  political  liberty  the  diffusion  of 
the  State  sovereignty  among  large  numbers  of  the  citizens,  and  the 
intervention  as  direct  as  it  may  be  made  of  the  people  in  the 
affairs  of  the  government.  The  republic  is  the  special  embodiment 
of  this  liberty.  The  presumption  is  that  the  people  will  guard 
with  great  care  their  civil  liberty — the  free,  untrammeled  enjoy- 
ment of  their  rights — by  giving  personal  attention  to  the  govern- 
ment rather  than  by  abdicating  the  whole  sovereignty  into  the 
hands  of  one  ruler.  The  general  principles  bearing  upon  authority, 
which  I  have  so  far  explained,  remain  inviolate.  The  representa- 
tives of  power,  once  placed  in  office,  no  matter  how  numerous 
they  be,  or  how  brief  their  term  of  authority,  are  for  the  time 
being  the  superiors  of  the  community,  and  hold  their  power  from 
God  within  the  limitations  assigned  to  their  several  charges  by 
the    constitution. 

Do  you  ask  the  attitude  of  the  Catholic  Church  towards  a 
republican  form  of  government?  The  reply  is  substantially  given 
in  what  I  have  heretofore  said  on  the  rights  of  the  people.  The 
Church  teaches  that  the  choice  of  constitutions  and  of  rulers  lies 
with  the  people.  Whether  they  will  have  an  empire,  a  monarchy 
or  a  republic  it  is  their  own  privilege  to  decide,  according  as  their 
needs  may  suggest  or  their  desires  may  lead.  Tlie  Church  is  from 
her  own  principles  without  a  voice  in  this  matter.  This  is  the 
emphatic   declaration  of  Pope  Leo  in   his   Encyclical    of  June,  1881. 


30  SEBMONS  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

It  is  for  the  people  to  speak ;  for  the  Church  to  consecrate  and 
enforce  their  will.  When  the  people  have  under  due  conditions 
constituted  a  government  over  themselves,  whatever  form  in  itself 
legitimate  this  government  may  have,  the  Church  commands  obedi- 
ence to  it.  It  is  the  Catholic  doctrine  that  in  America  loyalty  ta 
the  republic  is  a  divine  virtue,  and  resistance  to  its  laws  a  sia 
crying  to  heaven  for  vengeance.  The  republic  in  America  will 
receive  from  the  Church  all  the  honor  and  respect  due  to  the  rep- 
resentative of  divine  authority  in  temporal  matters,  and  her  prayer 
for  the  republic  will  be  that  it  may  secure  to  the  people  what  its- 
professions  permit  them  to  expect — the  largest  possible  share  of  civil 
liberty. 

I  lose  all  patience  when  I  hear  prejudice  still  surviving  to  the 
extent  to  assert  that  the  Catholic  Church  is  not  the  friend  of 
free  institutions.  Could  her  teachings  be  more  explicit?  Has  her 
history  belied  those  teachings  ?  The  soul,  the  life  of  a  republic, 
is  an  intense  love  of  civil  liberty :  has  not  the  Church  ever 
labored  to  create  and  strengthen  this  love?  Have  not  her  efforts 
been  always  in  the  direction  of  personal  dignity,  and  of  the  rights 
of  the  individual  ?  Did  not  the  Middle  Ages  under  her  guidance- 
gradually  emerge  from  Roman  despotism  and  barbarian  feudalism 
into  the  possession  of  political  liberty,  so  that  we  may  truly  say 
she  started  the  nations  on  the  road  to  the  highest  forms  of  lib- 
erty ?  "What  power  but  the  Church,  by  the  abolition  of  slavery 
and  serfdom,  widened  the  ranks  of  freemen  and  citizens  ?  Were- 
not  her  bishops  parties  to  all  the  charters  of  liberty  wrenched 
from  absolute  monarchs  ?  Were  not  parliaments  and  trial  by  jury 
the  institutions  of  Catholic  ages  ?  Were  not  the  fueros  and  com- 
munes of  the  Middle  Ages  the  freest  forms  of  municipal  regimes  f 
Are  not  the  names  of  the  Italian  republics  of  Genoa,  Pisa,  Sienna, 
Florence,  Venice  familiar  to  all  students  of  history  ?  Does  not 
Switzerland,  that  classic  land  of  mountain  liberty,  shoot  into  remote- 
Catholic  centuries  the  roots  of  her  republican  institutions  ?  I  may 
add  in  all  truth,  if  the  world  is  to-day  capable  of  enduring  and 
understanding  political  liberty,  it  is  due  to  the  Church's  long  and 
painful  parturition  of  European  civilization.  I  presume  our  Rad- 
icals wonder  that  the  hordes  led  by  Attilla  and  Genseric  were 
not  at  once  educated  by  the  Church  into  the  intricacies  of  parlia- 
mentary   debate    and    presidential    campaigning.     The    action    of    the' 


THE  CHURCH— THE  SUPPORT  OF  JUST  GOVERNMENT.         31 

Church  in  the  world  is  as  the  action  of  God,  strongest  when, 
mildest,  sowing  seeds  in  due  season,  and  awaiting  due  season  ta 
reap  the  harvest,  educating  nations  as  a  parent  educates  its  child. 
This  much  certainly  is  manifest  from  her  history,  that  she  encour- 
aged the  fullest  development  of  personal  freedom  and  personal 
rights,  and  that  so  far  as  political  liberty  is  compatible  with  civil 
liberty,  and  avoids  anarchy  no  less  than  despotism,  the  Churcli 
will   rejoice    in    its   widest   expansion. 

I  do  not  say  that  Catholics  the  world  over  will  profess,  or 
that  Catholics  of  all  past  ages  would  have  professed,  my  own 
love  and  admiration  for  the  republican  form  of  government.  The 
choice  of  governments  the  Church  leaves  to  nations,  and  as  in 
all  questions  left  to  free  discussion,  men  differ.  Catholics  in 
other  places  see  matters  from  peculiar  standpoints ;  they  judge 
from  experiences  near  to  them ;  they  may,  too,  be  influenced  by 
public  opinion  or  prejudices  in  their  several  countries.  This  much,, 
however,  I  know,  that  if  they  prefer  other  forms  they  are  not 
compelled  in  their  choice  by  Catholic  principles  or  Catholic  history. 
This  much  too,  I  know,  that  I  transgress  no  one  iota  of  Catholic 
teaching  when  I  speak  forth  my  own  judgment  this  evening,  and 
salute    the    republic   as    the    government    I    most    cordially    cherish. 

The  great  Augustine  ("  De  Lib.  arbitrio")  wrote:  "If  the 
people  are  serious  and  temperate ;  and  if,  moreover,  they  have 
such  a  concern  for  the  public  good  that  each  one  would  prefer 
the  public  interest  to  his  own,  is  it  not  true  that  it  would  be 
advisable  to  enact  that  a  people  should  choose  their  own  author- 
ities for  the  administration  of  their  affairs  ?"  and  the  answer 
given  is,  "  certainly."  Remark  the  conditions :  "  If  the  people 
are  serious  and  temperate,"  etc.,  etc.  The  one  fear  for  the 
republic  is  that  it  gives  more  freedom  than  poor  humanity  deserves 
or  can  endure.  No  form  of  government  as  much  as  a  republic 
demands  wisdom  and  virtue  in  the  people.  The  many  control 
the  ship  of  State ;  the  many,  consequently,  must  be  able  to 
control  their  own  passions,  else  swift  shipwreck  awaits  it.  Rome 
lost  her  liberties  when  the  Romans  had  lost  the  stern  morality  of 
their  early  history.  Virtue  is  but  a  name,  where  religion,  the 
deep  sense  of  man's  obligations  to  God,  is  not  deeply  imbedded 
in  the  hearts  of  the  people.  To  Americans,  then,  who  love  the 
republic,    I    fearlessly   say,    your    hope    is    in   the    Catholic    Church,. 


32       SUMMONS  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

because  she  is  the  mighty  power  to-day  to  resist  unbelief  and 
vice.  Do  you  not  see  that  outside  of  the  Catholic  Church  the 
most  important  doctrines  of  Christianity  are  melting  away,  and 
that  a  moral  chaos  is  threatening,  most  vital  virtues  said  to  be 
no  longer  of  significance,  and  the  fount  of  all  social  life,  the 
family,  breaking  up  under  the  pressure  of  violent  passion?  The 
most  valued  aids  to  the  republic  from  the  Church  are  not  her 
direct  enunciations  on  liberty,  but  her  powerful  labors  in  the 
cause  of  religion,  of  purity,  of  honesty,  of  all  the  heavenly  virtues 
that    build    up    the    Christian    man    and    the    Christian    family. 

Republic  of  America,  receive  from  me  the  tribute  of  my  love 
and  of  my  loyalty.  I  am  proud  to  do  thee  homage,  and  I  pray 
from  my  heart  that  thy  glory  may  never  be  dimmed  —  Esto 
jjerpctua!  Thou  bearcst  in  thy  hands  the  brightest  hopes  of  the 
human  race.  God's  mission  to  thee  is  to  show  to  nations  that 
man  is  capable  of  the  highest  liberty.  Oh !  be  ever  free  and 
prosperous  that  liberty  triumph  over  the  earth  from  the  rising  to 
the  setting  sun.  Esto  pc;"j:»c^ita — but  forget  not  that  religion  and 
morality  can  alone  give  life  to  liberty  and  preserve  to  it  a  never- 
fading  youth.  Believe  me,  thy  surest  hope  is  from  the  Church 
which  false  friends  would  have  thee  fear.  Believe  me,  no  hearts 
love  thee  more  ardently  than  Catholic  hearts,  no  tongues  speak 
more  loudly  thy  praises  than  Catholic  tongues,  and  no  hands  will 
be  lifted  up  stronger  and  more  willing  to  defend  thy  laws  and 
thy  institutions  in  peace  and  in  war,  than  Catholic  hands.  Again — 
Esto  pervetua  ! 


Most  Rev.  Michael  A.  Corrigan,  D.D- 


^^rrtub— ^tttt  ^umd  frrf^te. 


SERMOK  OF  MOST  REY.  M.   1.   CORRIdAI,  D.D., 

COADJUTOR-ARCHBISHOP   OF    KEW   YORK 


♦'Remember  your  prelates  who  have  spoken  the  Word  of  God  to  you." — Jleb., 
c.  xiii,  V,  11. 

OF  the  forty-six  Fathers  who  sat  in  the  second  Plenary  Council 
only  sixteen  still  survive.  More  than  this :  During  the  few 
years  that  have  since  elapsed  not  only  have  thirty  bishops  and 
archbishops  gone  to  the  house  of  their  eternity,  but  in  several 
instances,  their  successors,  too,  have  passed  away,  so  that  the 
Solemn  Requiem  oifered  this  morning  for  the  prelates  who  have 
died  since  the  last  council  is  chanted  for  forty-two  consecrated 
rulers.  For  these,  "  as  it  is  a  good  and  wholesome  thought  to 
pray  for  the.  dead,"  we  send  up  our  sighs  and  our  prayers  in  the 
spirit  of  fraternal  charity,  and  as  a  tribute  of  love  and  gratitude 
to  our  Fathers  in  the  faith  who  have  borne  the  burdens  of  the 
day  and  the  heat,  and  who  now  rest  from  their  labors.  "Blessed 
are  the  dead  who  die  in  the  Lord.  From  henceforth  now,  saith 
the    Spirit,     ....     for    their    works    follow    them." 

In  the  commemorative  services  and  solemn  supplications  offered 
in  this  cathedral,  the  first  place,  dear  brethren,  is  deservedly  due 
to  your  own  lamented  archbishops,  the  Most  Rev.  Martin  John 
Spalding,  late  Delegate  Apostolic,  and  his  successor  in  this  time- 
honored  see,  the  Most  Rev.  James  Roosevelt  Bayley.  Then,  we 
affectionately  remember  the  venerable  and  Most  Rev.  Archbishop 
Purcell,  dean,  at  the  time  of  liis  death,  of  the  episcopate  of  the 
United  States.  "VVe  have  to  pray  also  for  the  Most  Rev.  Arcli- 
bishop    Odin,    of    New    Orleans,    and    his    successor,    the    Most    Rev. 

3  (33) 


34  SEEJIOyS  OF  TUB  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

Archbishop    Perche ;    for    Archbishop    Henni,    of    Milwaukee ;    Arch- 
bishop Bhmchet,  of  Oregon  City ;  Arclibishop  Wood,  of  Philadelphia.  • 

Besides  these,  memory  turns,  with  fond  regret,  to  a  long  list 
of  llight  lleverend  prelates,  who  were  all  present  at  the  late 
Plenary  Council,  and  who  have  since,  one  by  one,  passed  away, 
namely :  Bishop  Timon,  of  Buffalo ;  Bishop  Lavialle,  of  Louis- 
ville ;  Bisliop  Baraga,  of  Marquette ;  Bishop  Carrell,  of  Coving- 
ton ;  Bishop  Juncker,  of  Alton ;  Bishop  Lefebre,  of  Detroit  j 
Bishop  Demers,  of  Vancouver ;  Bishop  Luers,  of  Fort  Wayne ; 
Bishop  McGill,  of  Richmond;  Bishop  O'Gorman,  of  Omaha ;  Bishop 
Whelan,  of  Wheeling ;  Bishop  McFarland,  of  Hartford ;  Bishop 
Bacon,  of  Portland ;  Bishop  INIartin,  of  Nachitoches ;  Bishop  Verot, 
of  St.  Augustine ;  Bishop  De  Saint  Palais,  of  Yincennes ;  Bishop 
Rappe,  of  Cleveland ;  Bishop  Domenec,  of  Pittsburgh ;  Bishop 
Amat,  of  Monterey ;  Bishop  Rosecrans,  of  Columbus ;  Bishop  Lynch, 
of   Charleston ;     Bishop    Quinlan,    of  Mobile. 

We  mourn,  moreover,  the  loss  of  the  Rt.  Rev.  Dr.  Miege,  pre- 
vented by  illness  from  attending  the  last  National  Synod,  and 
who  departed  this  life  only  a  few  months  ago ;  and  we  mourn 
as  well  eleven  other  prelates  who  had  either  retired  from  active 
duty  before  the  celebration  of  the  second  Plenary  Council,  or  who 
received  Episcopal  consecration  after  that  date,  namely :  The  Rt. 
Rev.  Dr.  Chabrat,  Coadjutor  of  Bardstown ;  Rt.  Rev.  Bishoj)  R^s6, 
of  Detroit;  Rt.  Rev.  Dr.  O'Connor,  of  Pittsburgh;  Rt.  Rev.  Bishop 
Whelan,  of  Nashville ;  Rt.  Rev.  Bishop  De  la  Hailendiere,  of 
Vincennes ;  Rt.  Rev.  Bishop  Melcher,  of  Green  Bay ;  Rt.  Rev. 
Bishop  Galberry,  of  Hartford;  Rt.  Rev.  Bishop  Foley,  of  Chicago; 
Rt.  Rev.  Bishop  Pellicer,  of  San  Antonio ;  Rt.  Rev.  Bishop  Mc- 
MuUen,    of  Davenport ;     Rt.    Rev.    Bishop    Toebbe,    of   Covington. 

As  we  repeat  each  well-known  name,  hosts  of  pleasant  memories 
come  crowding  on  the  mind  just  as  by-gone  scenes  are  awak- 
ened to  new  life  by  some  sweet  strain  of  once  familiar  music. 
Venerable  forms  loom  up  again  before  us  with,  the  paternal  kind- 
ness, the  distinguished  presence,  the  winning  ways  we  knew  so  well 
of  old ;  and  while  the  vision  lasts  we  seem  to  hear  a  still,  small 
voice  saying :  "  To-day  for  me,  to-morrow  for  thee,"  or  the  echo  of 
the  words  spoken  by  the  wise  woman  of  Thecua  to  the  king  on 
his  throne:  "We  all  die,  and  fall  down  into  the  earth,  like  waters 
that  return  no   more." 


DE  MORTUIS—OUR  DECEASED  PRELATES.  35 

"Star  differeth  from  star  in  glory."  The  bishops,  whose  virtues 
we  commemorate,  diiFered  in  gifts  of  mind,  in  habits  of  thought, 
in  nationality,  in  early  training,  in  personal  experience,  in  almost 
everything  else  but  their  common  faith.  This  golden  bond  united 
them  to  each  other  and  to  us.  There  was  still  another  point  of 
resemblance  and  another  link  that  bound  them  all  together — the 
participation  in  the  divine  work  of  the  Good  Shepherd  which  was 
laid   upon    them    all. 

We  cannot  attempt  this  morning  to  review  the  lives  of  forty 
prelates  one  by  one;  but  we  can  at  least  give  a  passing  glance 
at  their  labors,  and  so  realize  to  some  extent  how  much  we  owe 
them. 

"Nothing  in  this  world,"  says  St.  Augustine,  "is  more  difficult, 
more  laborious,  more  perilous  than  the  office  of  a  bishop;  yet 
nothing  more  blessed  in  God's  sight  if  the  work  be  so  executed 
as  our  heavenly  Commander  enjoins."  "The  bishop,"  he  continues, 
"is  not  for  himself,  but  for  those  to  whom  he  preaches  the  divine 
word   and    dispenses    the    holy  sacraments." 

From  its  very  nature,  therefore,  the  episcopate  is  a  name  not  so 
much  of  honor  as  of  labor  and  of  burden.  Among  the  heathens, 
for  instance,  at  this  very  hour,  to  the  devoted  bishops,  who  carry 
their  lives  in  their  hands,  the  episcopate  is  a  name  of  untold 
hardship  and  of  peril.  Apart  from  open  persecution,  it  is  a  name 
of  consuming  anxiety,  even  in  so-called  Catholic  countries  where 
the  free  action  of  the  Church  is  hampered  by  the  State,  the  out- 
ward splendor  of  the  office  but  too  often  concealing  a  hidden  yet 
a  bitter  bondage.  Once  more:  even  when  the  Church  is  free,  and 
religion  has  long  been  established,  the  episcopate  is  still  a  name 
of  awful  responsibility  on  account  of  the  great  multitudes  of  souls 
to   be    cared  for. 

In  our  beloved  country,  dear  bretliren,  although  the  edge  of  the 
sword,  the  jealousy  of  interfering  governments,  and  swarming  Catho- 
lic populations,  as  in  Europe,  have  thus  far  been  wanting ;  yet  our 
deceased  prelates  have  certainly  not  been  exempt  from  the  trials 
of  their  office.  Let  me  recall  to  mind  a  single  characteristic  fact. 
Of  the  two  and  forty  chief  pastors  whose  loss  we  deplore  no  fewer 
than  twenty-three  were  the  first  bishops  of  their  sees,  that  is, 
founders  of  new  dioceses,  and  if  the  term  may  be  used,  pioneers 
of    religion.      Kow,    if  we    consider    all    that   the   life    of    a   pioneer 


36  SUMMONS  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

implies,  in  overcoming  difficulties,  in  creating  resources,  in  facing 
hardships,  privations,  unknown  dangers,  in  displaying  untiring  steadi- 
ness of  purpose,  energy  and  courage,  carried  even  often  to  heroism, 
the  humble  pioneer  stands  before  us  an  humble  missionary  no 
longer,  but  transfigured  with  shining  light,  in  all  the  majesty,  the 
supernatural  loveliness,  the  glory  of  an  apostle.  Yet  such  were 
the  labors,  more  or  less,  such  the  lives  of  all  our  deceased  pre- 
lates, and  from  this  chair  of  truth  we  may  well  proclaim  our  deep 
indebtedness  for    the  work    they  accomplished. 

We  owe  their  memory  lasting  thanks,  dear  brethren,  because 
they  achieved  :  (1.)  great  results,  (2.)  In  a  short  time,  (3.)  In  spite 
of  many  difficulties. 

And,  first  of  all,  a  vast  work  was  given  them  to  do.  Take, 
for  instance  (as  a  typical  case,  although  by  no  means  one  of  the 
most  embarrassing),  the  case  of  your  late  Archbishop,  and  my 
beloved  predecessor.  Bishop  Bayley.  Named  first  Bishop  of  Newark, 
he  found  a  diocese  with  twenty-five  priests  and  as  many  churches, 
but  unprovided  with  a  single  house  of  learning,  with  no  religious 
orders,  no  charitable  institutions,  except  a  small  frame  building, 
rented  as  a  temporary  orphan  asylum,  under  the  care  of  five  Sister's 
of  Charity.  The  field  was  large  and  inviting,  the  harvest  not  only 
not  ripe,  but  the  seeds  hardly  yet  planted.  Situated  between  two 
great  cities,  the  new  bishopric  received  the  surplus  of  an  overflow- 
ing tide  of  immigration  rich,  indeed,  in  prospective  blessings,  like 
the  inundations  of  the  Nile,  but  bringing  also  multitudinous  wants 
demanding  instant  attention.  To  meet  and  direct  the  rising  flood 
it  was  necessary  to  multiply,  first  of  all,  the  number  of  devoted 
laborers ;  then  religious  orders  had  to  be  introduced  as  auxiliaries, 
so  that  churches,  schools,  hospitals,  asylums,  might  be  erected  every- 
where. I  need  not  dwell  on  the  results  accomplished.  Suffice  it 
to  say  that  such  was  the  growth  of  religion  that  a  single  parish 
had  to  be  divided  eighteen  times  over  in  as  many  years — thirty- 
six  priests  doing  duty  in  a  district  where  a  few  years  previously 
three    stood  watch    and    guard    over    the    interests    of  souls. 

From  the  Atlantic  let  us  pass  to  the  distant  Pacific  coast.  It 
is  not  yet  half  a  century  since  a  Canadian  Missionary,  Father  Francis 
Norbert  Blancliet,  afterwards  bishop  and  archbishop,  penetrated  the 
wilds  of  Oregon,  Avhere,  at  that  time,  there  was  neither  church  nor 
priest.     At    the    date    of  his   consecration,  in    1843,  his    entire  clergy 


DE  MORTUIS—OUR  DECEASED  PRELATES.  37 

consisted  of  the  distinguished  Father  De  Smet  and  four  other  devoted 
Jesuit  Fathers.  But  remember  the  size  of  his  vicariate.  It  embraced 
375,000  square  miles,  a  tract  of  territory  larger  than  England, 
France  and  Italy  put  together,  or  than  all  our  Atlantic  sea-board 
States,  from  Maine  to  Florida,  both  included.  "With  all  our  actual 
appliances  for  annihilating  distance,  this  would  still  constitute  an 
immense  field  of  labor.  What  must  have  been  the  toil  of  travers- 
ing it  before  the  building  of  railroads  forty  years  ago,  on  foot  or 
on    horseback. 

Leaving  now  our  sea-coasts,  separated  from  each  other  by  thou- 
sands of  miles,  let  us  pass  to  the  interior  and  recall  the  labors  of 
another  pioneer  and  founder — the  INIost  Rev.  Archbishop  Henni. 
During  the  sixth  Provincial  Council  of  Baltimore  he  was  nominated 
to  the  See  of  Milwaukee,  then  a  far  distant  frontier  city,  in  which 
the  Holy  Sacrifice  had  been  offered  for  the  first  time  only  seven 
years  before.  At  his  installation  he  found  in  his  new  diocese  four 
priests,  four  or  five  churches  and  about  8,000  faithful  people.  At 
his  death  there  were  185  clergymen,  258  churches,  125  schools, 
200,000  Catholics,  and  these  figures  whould  be  still  larger  had  not 
the    diocese    meanwhile   been    divided   and    subdivided. 

But  all  this,  and  much  more  of  the  same  character  that  could 
be  added,  is  a  familiar  tale  to  you,  dear  brethren,  \vho,  to  use 
the  phrase  of  Cardinal  Barnabo  at  the  opening  of  the  American 
College,  Rome,  live  in  a  country  "  in  Avhich  cities  arc  not  built, 
but  improvised."  AVhat  elsewhere  is  the  steady,  gradual  and  pro- 
gressive growth  of  centuries  had  to  be  accomplished  here  in  a 
single    lifetime. 

The  country  advanced  with  more  than  giant  strides.  The 
Church  had  to  keep  equal  pace,  if  not,  indeed,  to  lead  the  march 
of  progress.  In  justice  to  the  dead,  may  we  not  say  that  their 
work  was  most  successfully,  as  well  as  expeditiously,  accomplished? 
Take  the  Seminary  of  St.  Charles,  at  Overbrook,  that  monument 
of  the  late  noble-hearted  Archbishop  of  Philadelphia.  In  point  of 
elegance  of  construction,  of  comfortable  accommodation,  and  of 
architectural  beauty,  is  there  in  the  Catholic  world  a  finer  semi- 
nary? And  as  regards  system  and  organization,  thoroughness  of 
equipment,  attention  to  sanitary  laws  and  personal  comfort,  may 
not  many  institutions  of  benevolence  and  charity  established  under 
the  auspices  of  our  deceased  prelates  compare  quite  favorably,  to 
say    the   least,    with    the    very    best   productions    of  Europe? 


38       SERMONS  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

Thus  far  we  have  seen  that  the  bishops  l)ad  a  vast  work  to 
do,  and  to  do  it  quickly.  "  Being  made  perfect  in  a  short  space 
they  fulfilled  a  long  time."  There  remains  a  third  considera- 
tion— they  had  to  discharge  their  labors  in  the  midst  of  many 
obstacles. 

First  of  all,  there  was  the  manifest  want  of  funds.  They  had 
no  princely  patrons,  no  overflowing  coffers  to  depend  on,  but 
only  the  mites  of  the  poor  and  the  living  springs  of  Christian 
charity. 

Next  there  Avas  tlie  want  of  men — of  a  numerous  and  well- 
trained  clergy.  In  a  diocese  in  which  all  things  are  duly  ordered, 
according  to  the  law  of  the  Cliurch ;  where  the  bishop  is  sur- 
rounded by  vicars-general,  canons  and  a  competent  staff  of  other 
officials ;  where  all  the  duties  of  routine  labor  are  equally  dis- 
tributed, and  each  department  of  work  has  its  own  head,  its  own 
organization,  the  task  of  presiding  is  rendered  comparatively  easy; 
just  as  a  commander-in-chief  rules  and  directs  an  army.  But 
with  us,  hitherto,  instead  of  attaching  to  himself  a  corps  of  offi- 
cials and  so  lightening  his  own  labors,  the  bishop  gave  the  first 
thought  to  the  pressing  needs  of  souls,  and  hence  he  was  obliged 
to  do  the  work  of  many  others  single-handed  and  unassisted.  All 
the  difficulties  of  the  diocese  meanwhile  came  swelling  up  to  him, 
as   a    pyramid   rises    to    its    apex. 

New  issues,  with  new  complications  not  contemplated  in  ordinary 
ecclesiastical  jurisprudence,  were  continually  forming,  so  that  the 
chief  pastor,  besides  attending  to  a  large  correspondence  and  the 
discharge  of  episcopal  functions,  was  compelled  to  act  as  theologian, 
parish  priest,  architect,  lawyer,  financier — "  to  become  all  things 
to  all  men,  to  gain  all  to  Christ."  In  the  language  of  St. 
Augustine,  he  was  emphatically  not  for  himself,  but  for  others — 
the   servant    of  the    servants    of  God. 

Nor  must  we  omit  to  notice  another  serious  difficulty  incidental 
to    a    country    so   large   and    vast    as    ours. 

The  United  States,  Ireland,  France,  Germany,  Austria,  Spain, 
Belgium,  Italy,  Canada,  Switzerland,  all  contributed  to  form  our 
hierarchy,  and  the  bishops  whose  memory  we  are  celebrating 
received  a  varied  training  in  Rome,  at  St.  Sulpice,  in  Paris,  and 
in  Baltimore,  in  Mount  St.  Mary's  and  elsewhere.  Nine  of  the 
deceased    bishops    were    members     of    religious     orders ;     four    were 


DE  3I0RTUIS~0UR  DECEASED  PRELATES.  39 

selected  from  the  Lazarists,  two  were  Jesuits,  one  a  Sulpician, 
one  an  Augustinian,  one  a  Trappist.  Now  this  unavoidable  variety 
was  both  a  cause  of  danger ;  and,  also,  in  God's  providence,  by 
which  "all  things  work  together  unto  good,"  an  instrument  of 
blessings. 

It  was  a  source  of  danger,  for  as  each  prelate  was  left  largely 
to  his  own  inspirations  in  mapping  out  his  course  and  forming 
traditions  for  his  diocese  in  harmony  with  local  surroundings,  as 
these  surroundings  varied  in  almost  every  case,  so  difference  of 
discipline  would  naturally  ensue,  with  deviations  more  or  less 
permissible  from  the  customs  of  the  universal  Church.  In  fact, 
even  at  this  hour,  considering  the  vast  extent  of  the  country  and 
the  cosmopolitan  character  of  its  inhabitants,  it  is  almost  as  diffi- 
cult to  secure  uniform  ecclesiastical  legislation  for  the  United 
States  alone  as  it  M'ould  be  for  the  whole  of  Europe.  Neverthe- 
less, it  became  necessary  to  provide,  as  far  as  practicable,  for 
uniformity  of  discipline.  "With  this  view,  in  this  historic  cathedral, 
between  1810  and  1849,  seven  Provincial  Councils  were  convened; 
while  during  the  same  period,  with  the  exception  of  the  Synod 
of  Tuam  in  1817,  not  a  single  Provincial  Council  had  met  in 
all  Europe.  In  1849  the  late  Sovereign  Pontiff  raised  that  apos- 
tolic voice  which  never  goes  forth  in  vain,  exhorting  the  bishops 
of  the  Catholic  world  to  revive  the  salutary  discipline  of  assem- 
bling in  Provincial  Councils ;  and  within  the  remaining  years  of 
his  Pontificate,  a  larger  number  of  such  synods  were  assembled 
than  the  world  had  seen  during  the  two  preceding  centuries.  The 
bishops  of  France,  England,  Ireland,  Germany,  Austria,  Italy, 
obeying  the  voice  of  Peter,  held  council  after  council,  pouring 
forth  those  rich  treasures  of  sacred  erudition  which  come  ordinarily 
of  "  ojiportunity  of  leisure."  And  now  the  bread  cast  on  the 
waters  by  the  American  Church  came  back  to  the  givers.  The 
late  Delegate  Apostolic,  observing  the  full  and  harmonious  exposi- 
tion of  law  and  of  discipline,  with  which  these  councils  abound, 
conceived  the  design  of  preparing  for  this  country  also  a  body  of 
law,  complete  in  its  kind  and  comprehensive  —  a  body  of  law 
which  would  resume  in  itself  all  the  legislative  enactments  of  his 
predecessors  —  which  would  bring  us  all  closer  together  in  our 
customs  and  local  usages  by  uniting  us  all  more  closely  with 
the    Holy     Komaa    Church  j    which,   foreseeing    future    growth    and 


40  SUBMONS  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

development,  would  introduce  the  normal  life  of  the  Church, 
intended  to  abide  in  perpetuity.  The  result  was  the  second  Plenary 
Council  of  Baltimore,  embodying  a  code  of  national  canon  law, 
in  which  the  spirit  of  moderation,  of  appropriateness  to  our  pecu- 
liar condition,  of  practical  good  judgment,  that  breathes  throughout, 
is  made  still  more  attractive  and  persuasive  by  the  dignity,  the 
grace  and  the  elegance  of  expression,  so  that  the  reader  knows 
not  which  most  to  admire,  the  wisdom  of  the  decrees  or  the 
consummate    beauty   with    which    they    are    presented. 

All  subsequent  legislation  in  this  country  has  felt  thus  far,  and 
will  long  continue  to  feel,  the  impress  of  the  second  Plenary 
Council.  An  advance  has  been  made  in  Church  polity  and  dis- 
cipline from  which  we  may  no  longer  recede,  even  if  we  would. 
Hence,  generations  to  come  will  have  reason  to  bless  the  memory 
of  Archbishop  Spalding  and  the  other  prelates  and  divines  who 
co-operated  with  him  in  accomplishing  so  beneficial  a  result.  It 
sets  the  seal  of  perpetuity  on  their  labors ;  for  it  would,  after 
all,  have  been  little  to  have  achieved  a  vast  material  success, 
unless  the  result  were  to  be  enduring.  "  You  liave  not  chosen  Me, 
but  I  have  chosen  you,  and  have  appointed  you,  that  you  should 
go    and    bring    forth    fruit,    and    your    fruit    should    remain." 

And  now,  in  conclusion,  I  cannot  leave  this  pulpit — his  pulpit, 
formerly — without  an  affectionate  allusion  to  him,  dear  brethren,  who 
consecrated  your  cathedral,  and  who — to  employ  the  phrase  nsed 
in  his  panegyric  on  this  very  spot — bequeathed  you  his  best  legacy 
in  providing  "  so  good  a  successor."  Oh  !  my  brethren,  how  noble, 
honest,  and  spotless  was  his  soul !  How  genial,  bright,  and  gen- 
erous his  character !  How  much  grace  and  sunshine  dwelt  in  all 
his  ways,   before    that    last,    fatal    malady    fastened   on    him. 

Your  late  archbisliop,  dear  brethren,  was  always  frank  from 
childhood  and  outspoken,  retaining  through  life  that  transparent 
sincerity,  that  unswerving  loyalty  to  truth,  that  constant  courage 
of  his  convictions  which,  under  divine  Providence,  led  him  origi- 
nally   to    the     Church. 

It  is  now  about  half  a  century  since  a  handsome  young  student 
in  Middletown,  Conn.,  sat  poring  over  the  acts  of  the  Council 
of  Chalcedon,  in  the  well-stored  library  of  a  distinguished  Episco- 
palian divine.  Suddenly  a  flash  of  light  seemed  to  beam  upon 
his     mind,    and     he    asked    his     preceptor     the    following    question: 


DE  MORTUIS—OUR  DECEASED   PRELATES.  41 

"  Doctor,  are  the  acts  of  this  council  authentic  ?  "  "  Most  assuredly," 
was  the  answer.  The  passage  he  had  been  reading  was  this : 
"  The  Fathers  with  one  voice  exclaimed  :  this  is  the  faith  of  our 
Fathers !  This  is  the  faith  of  the  Apostles !  Peter  has  spoken 
by  the  mouth  of  Leo — Pdrus  per  Leonem  locutus  est."  The  quick 
inference  and  deduction  came,  that  if  Peter  spoke  through  his 
successor  then,  in  the  fifth  century,  he  ought  also  to  speak  through 
him  now.  This  was  the  first  gleam  of  light  leading  gradually 
to  the  aurora  and  to  the  perfect  day.  His  sorrowing  friends  told 
liini  later  in  reply  that  Rome  was  corrupt,  and  if  he  would  but  go 
to  Rome  he  would  recognize  the  fact  and  relinquish  his  delusion. 
He  went  to  Rome  to  examine  honestly  for  himself,  and  there  he 
was  received  into  the  Church,  to  become  later  your  eighth 
archbishop. 

He  had  large  natural  gifts,  acute  powers  of  observation,  an 
unfailing  fund  of  humor,  a  rare  acquaintance  with  books,  and  a 
retentive  memory.  These  qualities  combined  made  him  a  delight- 
ful conversationalist  and  a  great  favorite  in  society.  But  back  of 
all  this  was  a  deep,  sincere  and  tender  piety.  Like  St.  Francis 
de  Sales,  his  cherished  patron,  even  while  so  well  fitted  to  shine 
in  the  world,  he  longed  for  the  peacefulness  and  privileges  of  a 
religious  life.  The  week  before  he  died,  alluding  to  the  subject, 
he  said  he  was  twice  on  the  point  of  becoming  a  religious — first, 
in  Rome  on  the  occasion  of  his  reception  into  the  Church,  and 
next,  shortly  before  receiving  episcopal  consecration.  Li  both  cases 
it  was  thought  best  he  should  remain  in  the  secular  clergy,  and 
there  exercise  the  many  gifts  he  possessed  for  the  good  of  others. 
How  well  he  used  the  talent  confided  to  him,  particularly  that 
of  organization,  his  labors  in  Xew  York,  New  Jersey  and  Balti- 
more   still    bear    testimony. 

Seven  years  ago  he  died.  I  remember  well  his  last  conver- 
sation, a  little  before  he  lost  consciousness.  He  had  been  talking 
of  the  dread  responsibility  that  presses  on  the  shoulders  of  a 
bishop — of  the  severe  account  to  be  rendered  to  the  Supreme 
Judge,  and  the  thought  was  suggested  to  him  that  God's  mercy 
is  above    all    his    works. 

"Yes,"  he  replied,  "this  reflection  has  often  encouraged  me. 
For,  after  all,  humanly  speaking,  I  could  liave  had  no  reason  to 
expect   the   gift   of  faith,    considering  my    early  associations  and  sur- 


42  SEEJIONS  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

roundings.  And  that  our  Lord  called  me  to  His  Church,  and  to 
His  service,  has  always  been  to  me  a  proof  of  His  love  and 
special  mercy  in  my  regard  of  His  will  to  save  me,  because 
He  brought  me  to  the  faith."  And  so  the  last  conscious  thought, 
as  far  as  I  know,  of  the  dear  archbishop,  was  kindred  to  that 
which  supported  the  great  St.  Teresa  in  her  agony,  "  After  all, 
O   Lord,  I    die    a    child    of  the    Church." 

As  I  began,  so  let  me  end,  dear  brethren,  M'ith  the  words  of 
St.  Augustine :  "  Nothing  in  this  world  is  more  difficult,  more 
laborious,  more  perilous  than  the  office  of  a  bishop,  yet  nothing 
more  blessed  in  God's  sight,  if  discharged  as  our  heavenly  Leader 
desires." 

The  responsibility  is  terrible,  the  laljor  long  and  unceasing, 
and  no  day  is  exempt  from  anxiety.  But  the  end  is  peace.  The 
grace  of  God  is  with  His  own  work.  As  the  straining  eyes  look 
up  to  heaven,  a  voice  of  consolation  comes  to  the  faithful  pastor 
as  to  the  patriarch  of  old :  "  Fear  not  I  am  thy  Protector,  and 
thy    Reward    exceeding    great." 


Most  Rev,  Wm.  Henry  Elder,  D.D. 


SERMOH  OF  MOST  REY.  ¥.  H.  ELDER,  D.D., 


ARCHBISHOP   OF    CIHCIKHATI. 


"  Ego  elegi   vos,  et  posui  a'os  ut  eatis  et  fructum  efferatis;   et  ut  fructus  vester 
maneat." — >S'^.   John,   c.   xv,   v.   16. 

IN  the  spectacle  before  our  eyes  we  witness  a  part  of  the 
accomplishment  of  this  mission.  The  AVord  of  God  is  effica- 
cious ;  what  it  declares  it  also  effects.  His  Word  said :  "  Let 
there  be  light :  and  there  was  light."  "  Young  man,  I  say  to  thee : 
Arise.  And  he  that  was  dead  sat  up  and  began  to  speak."  So 
when  our  Lord  commissioned  His  Apostles  to  produce  fruit  among 
men  His  efficacious  Word  went  forth  with  them,  and  they  did 
,  produce  the  fruit ;  and  the  fruit  has  remained,  and  this  day's 
assembly  is  at  once  an  evidence  of  its  greatness,  its  extent  and 
its  endurance,  and  at  the  same  time  a  j)ro vision  under  God  that 
it  shall  continue  and  multiply  in  the  future  as  it  has  done  in  the 
past.  The  gathering  in  this  cathedral  is  a  compendium  of  what 
is  seen  over  the  entire  world — Christ  living  in  those  whom  He 
has  sent,  and  through  them  living  in  the  civilized  world  and 
infusing  life  into  tlie  uncivilized.  We  see  here  spiritual  teachers 
and  rulers  from  all  parts  of  our  republic,  itself  constituted  of 
descendants  of  all  races  and  all  nations ;  around  these  teachers, 
their  faithful  children  in  the  Church,  and  mingled  Avith  these 
many  not  Catholics,  not  acknowledging  these  teachers  as  their  own, 
and  yet  enlightened  by  the  truths  which  He  commissioned  His 
Church  to  teach.  Because  these  truths  are  diffused  through  the 
whole    moral    atmosphere    of    civilization :    so   that   both   within   and 

(43) 


44  SEIi3I0IiS  OF  THE  THIRD    PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

"without  the  Church  they  reach  iu  various  degrees  the  minds  and 
hearts    and    daily  lives    of  all. 

And  who  are  these  spiritual  teachers  ?  Priests  of  God,  holding 
the  priesthood  of  Christ,  the  Son  of  God.  It  was  through  His 
priesthood  that  He  redeemed  man ;  and  through  that  same  priest- 
hood He  continues  to  give  life  in  each  successive  generation  till 
the  end  of  time  to  those  who  are  willing  to  receive  it.  He 
exercises  His  priesthood  on  earth  through  the  mortal  priest,  to 
whom  He  gives  His  own  power  and  in  whom  He  lives.  "  All 
power  is  given  to  ]\Ie  in  heaven  and  on  earth.  As  My  Father 
sent  Me,  so  I  also  send  you.  And  behold,  I  am  with  you  all 
days,  even  to  the  consummation  of  the  Avorld."  What  is  this 
priesthood  of  Christ  ?  AVhat  is  the  priesthood  in  the  Church  ? 
"What  fruit  has  it  produced  and  by  what  means  ?  To  what  degree 
do  we  owe  it  to  our  civilization  ?  These  are  questions  which  we 
shall  dwell  upon  this  morning ;  not  to  answer  them  fully,  but 
to  suggest  some  points  of  the  answers — points  for  us  all  to  med- 
itate on,  each  one  to  produce  in  his  own  life  his  own  portion 
of  the    fruits. 

Among  men  Christ's  priesthood  is  His  mediation  between 
sinful  man  and  God  outraged  by  man's  sins.  Our  first  parents 
rebelled  against  God,  and  thereby  forfeited  all  claim  to  His  favor 
for  themselves  and  their  children.  And  alas !  his  children  have 
added  their  own  sins  to  their  parents',  and  thus  sunk  themselves 
still  lower  into  misery,  binding  themselves  in  helpless  slavery 
to  their  most  hateful  enemy.  They  needed  a  mediator.  Even 
at  the  time  when  their  crime  was  still  fresh  upon  their  souls, 
even  before  their  punishment  was  all  of  it  actually  inflicted, 
already  God's  mercy  was'  moved  to  promise  them  a  mediator 
who  should  bring  them  pardon  and  reconciliation  and  triumph 
over  the  tyrant  to  whom  they  had  so  shamefully  betrayed  the 
precious  gifts  of  their  Creator.  This  was  fulfilled  when  the 
ever  Blessed  Virgin  Mary,  by  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
brought  into  this  world  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  giving  to  the 
Eternal  Word  a  human  nature — both  soul  and  body.  "  And  the 
Word   Avas    made    flesh   and    dwelt   among    us." 

AVith  infinite  condescension  He  came  down  to  be  our  Brother 
on  earth,  that  he  might  raise  us  up  to  be  His  brethren  in  the 
kingdom    of    His    Father.     And    He    did    this    by    His    priesthood. 


THE  PRIESTHOOD.  45 

*'  To  as  many  as  received  Iliiu  He  gave  power  to  become  the 
sons    of  God." 

The  highest  act  of  the  priesthood  is  sacrifice.  All  our  Lord's 
earthly  life  ■was  one  continued  sacrifice,  consummated  when  He  gave 
up  that  life  for  us  upon  the  cross.  By  sacrifice  Ave  mean,  in  its 
perfect  and  divine  character,  an  act  or  sign  which  fully  and  ade- 
quately expresses  the  acknowledgment  by  a  creature  of  the  supreme 
dominion  and  infinite  majesty  of  God  over  all  His  creatures.  And 
this  is  the  highest  worship,  containing  all  other  acts  of  worship. 
Men  can,  indeed,  express  an  acknowledgment  of  this  dominion 
by  words  and  by  various  signs ;  but  all  these  expressions  are 
imperfect,  and  therefore  not  adequate ;  imperfect  very  often,  because 
words  do  not  prove  the  sincerity  of  the  man  who  utters  them ; 
imperfect  essentially,  because  all  signs  and  all  acts  of  creatures 
are  finite.  They  can  never,  therefore,  reach  up  to  express  ade- 
quately Avhat  is  infinite  in  all  perfection — the  domain  and  majesty 
of  God.  It  would  seem,  then,  as  if  the  Creator  never  could 
receive  an  adequate  sacrifice  or  perfect  worship  from  His  creatures, 
since  all  creatures  are  infinitely  beneath  their  Creator.  Much  less 
could  He  receive  such  an  adequate  acknowledgment  from  men 
sunk  into  sins  and  enslaved  to  God's  hateful  enemy.  But  God's 
goodness  surpasses  the  conceptions  of  all  His  creatures,  and  His 
infinite  wisdom  and  mercy,  coming  down  to  the  help  of  creatures, 
even  of  His  ungrateful  creatures,  the  sons  of  man,  devised  a 
means  by  which  the  creature  could  offer  this  adequate  acknowledg- 
ment in  a  perfect  sacrifice;  a  sacrifice  of  infinite  and  divine  value, 
by  which  man  could  render  homage  equal  to  all  that  God  could 
ask;  infinite  and  divine  as  God's  divinity  itself.  This  was  through 
means    of  the    adorable    mystery    of  the   Incarnation. 

In  this  crowning  mystery  of  God's  love  and  wisdom,  God  the 
Son  Himself,  infinite,  eternal  God,  having  the  one  individual  divine 
nature  with  the  Father  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  took  to  Himself 
likewise  a  human,  nature :  so  that  He  was  at  the  same  time 
divine  and  human  —  Creator  aud  creature.  Some  illustration  of 
this  mystery  we  can  sec  in  tlie  constitution  of  our  own  human 
being.  Man  is  composed  of  body  and  soul — of  spirit  and  matter 
each  in  its  nature  utterly  and  entirely  distinct  from  the  other. 
His  body  is  matter,  utterly  incapable  of  thinking  or  willing  or 
of    any   act    of    consciousness.     The    soul    is    spirit,    having    neither 


46  SFEJIOXS  OF  TUB  THIRD   PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

shape  nor  weight  nor  any  other  property  belonging  to  matter. 
And  vet  so  constituted  man  is  one  single  human  person.  All 
our  acts,  whether  done  through  the  soul  or  tlirough  the  body, 
arc  equally  human  acts.  In  like  manner  our  divine  Lord,  being 
one  divine  Person  with  two  natures,  divine  and  human,  all  His 
acts  were  divine,  whether  done  through  His  divine  or  His  human 
nature.  "When,  therefore,  our  Lord,  God  and  man,  made  acknow- 
ledgment of  the  subjection  of  His  human,  created  nature  to  Almighty 
God  and  declared  the  supreme  dominion  and  majesty  of  God,  His 
absolute  right  of  life  and  death  over  Himself  and  all  creatures — 
this  confession  and  homage  was  a  perfect  and  adequate  act  of 
sacrifice. 

It  was  made  by  a  creature,  and  yet  it  was  perfect  and  ade- 
quate and  infinite,  because  it  was  the  act  of  God,  a  divine  act, 
as  the  acts  of  our  bodies  are  human  acts. 

But  our  Lord  not  only  confessed  this  dominion;  He  submitted 
Himself  to  it  in  all  the  acts  of  His  life.  "I  am  come  not  to  do 
My  own  will,  but  the  M-ill  of  Him  that  sent  Me."  He  lived  all 
His  human  life  in  obedience  to  it,  and  he  filled  up  the  measure 
of  all  possible  obedience  by  suffering  every  pain  of  body,  every 
anguish  of  soul  that  His  human  nature  was  capable  of  suffering ; 
consummating  His  homage  to  His  Father  by  laying  down  His  life 
itself — the  highest  possible  confession  of  God's  dominion.  "  Christ 
became  obedient  for  us  unto  death — even  to  the  death  of  the 
cross."  And  while  this  suffering  was  endured  in  His  human  nature, 
yet  since  He  Avas  God  Avho  suffered,  it,  therefore,  had  a  divine 
dignity  and  value.  It  was  infinite,  worthy  of  God  Himself,  and, 
therefore,  an  adequate,  a  perfect,  an  infinite  sacrifice. 

This  was  the  completion,  the  filling  up  of  the  priesthood  of 
Christ.  But  although  it  was  the  completion,  it  was  not  the  termi- 
nation either  of  His  sacrifice  or  of  His  priesthood.  They  both 
endure  for  all  eternity.     "  Thou  art  a  priest  forever." 

Having  risen  from  the  dead  and  ascended  to  the  right  hand 
of  God  the  Father,  He  did  not  cease  to  confess  and  declare  the 
supreme  dominion  of  the  divine  majesty  over  His  own  human 
nature  as  over  all  creatures.  On  the  contrary.  His  very  presence 
in  heaven  in  His  human  nature,  with  his  adorable  body  still 
marked  with  the  sacred  wounds  He  suffered  in  His  obedience,  is 
an    authentic    confession     of    that    dominion,    a    perfect     and    divine. 


THE  PRIESTHOOD.  4T 

praise,  an    eternal    sacrifice.     And    thus    Christ    continues    in    heaven 
His  eternal  priesthood. 

Let  me  relate  a  parable  :  A  dutiful  son,  after  years  of  toil  en- 
dured for  the  love  of  his  honored  father  and  of  liis  younger 
brothers,  gathered  means  to  purchase  a  valuable  estate,  and  he  con- 
veyed this  to  his  father  as  a  testimony  of  honor  and  gratitude  to 
him,  and  as  a  provision  for  the  livelihood  and  education  of  his 
brothers.  His  gift  was  completed,  when  he  duly  executed  the  deed 
of  conveyance.  But  this  was  not  the  end  of  his  pious  work.  It. 
was  the  beginning,  rather.  For  after  this  his  father  continued,  as 
long  as  he  lived,  to  receive,  year  after  year,  the  comforts  and  honors 
accruing  from  the  estate,  and  year  after  year  the  younger  brothers 
continued  to  receive  the  livelihood,  the  education,  the  enjoyments,, 
the  society,  which  their  brother's  love  had  put  within  their  reach. 

The  deed  of  conveyance  was  executed  once,  and  never  to  be 
repeated;    but   the    gift   endured    during    the    life-time   of    the    family. 

And  so  is  it  with  the  gift  of  our  elder  Brother — the  Son  of" 
God  made  man.  "Having  died  once.  He  dieth  now  no  more." 
"  He  entered  once  into  the  holy  place,  having  obtained  eternal 
redemption."  But  His  sacrifice.  His  confession  of  God's  absolute 
dominion,  His  purchase  of  life  and  graces  for  His  brothers  in 
the  flesh,  as  sinful  men — this  endured  and  shall  continue  tO' 
endure.  "  He  hath  an  everlasting  priesthood,"  says  St.  Paul,. 
"  whereby  He  is  able  to  save  forever  them  that  come  to  God  by 
Him,  always  having  to  make    intercessions    for    us."     (Heb.  vii,  24.) 

The  eternal  priesthood  of  Christ,  then,  may  be  said  to  be  the 
ultimate  end  God  had  in  view  in  the  entire  work  of  creation;  for 
it  is  the  perfection  of  the  glory  which  He  receives  from  all  His 
creatures.  We  need  not  wonder,  therefore,  that  His  priesthood  was 
declared  from  early  ages,  and  confirmed  by  the  solemnity  of  an 
oath  from  God  in  those  mysterious  words  :  "  The  Lord  hath  sworn,, 
and  it  shall  not  repent  Him :  Thou  art  a  priest  forever."  Such 
is  the  priesthood  of  Christ  in  its  essence. 

Now,  what  is  the  priesthood  on  earth — the  priesthood  exercised 
by  mortal  men — the  priesthood  we  see  in  this  assembly  ?  It  is 
the  continuation  of  this  essential  priesthood  of  Christ  through  the 
ministry  of  men.  The  sacrifice  which  He  is  always  offering  before 
His  Father  in  heaven,  invisible  there  to  us,  that  same  sacrifice  He 
is   pleased   to    offer  on    our   earth,  made   visible  to   our    mortal   eyes- 


48  SERMONS  OF  TEE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

in   the    Holy    Sacrifice    of  the    Mass;    and   by   this    He    gives    us    a 
perfect  worship. 

In  this  adorable  mystery  our  Lord,  in  His  own  flesh  and  blooa, 
under  the  appearance  of  bread  and  wine,  truly  and  really  comes 
upon  our  altar ;  and  there  before  our  eyes  offers  to  His  Father 
the  same  testimony  of  adoration,  obedience  and  love — the  same 
thanksgiving  for  all  His  gifts  to  creatures,  the  same  atonement  for 
the  sins  of  men,  the  same  supplication  for  new  favors  and  renewed 
mercy — which  He  once  sealed  by  His  death,  and  which  He  is  per- 
petually offering  before  the  choirs  of  heaven.  He  wishes  to  make 
this  offering  visible  and  audible  for  our  mortal  senses.  And,  there- 
fore. He  has  appointed  visible  mortal  men  to  be  His  priests,  and 
authorized  them  to  utter  His  own  words,  with  power  to  produce 
the  same  effect  as  when  He  uttered  them  with  His  mortal  lips. 
The  priest  takes  in  his  hands  the  bread  and  wine;  he  repeats  the 
mysterious  words  of  Christ ;  and  on  this  utterance,  the  bread  and 
wine  are  changed.  Our  Lord,  in  His  real  Body  and  Blood, 
descends  uj)on  the  altar.  By  the  hands  of  His  priest  He  is  ele- 
vated for  the  people's  adoration;  by  the  hands  and  the  lips  of  His 
priests.  He  is  offered  to  tlie  Father  in  behalf  of  all  the  people ; 
by  His  priest  Pie  gives  Himself  to  His  faithful  disciples, ,  to  be 
the  food  of  their  souls,  their  strength  and  their  life  on  earth  and 
the  pledge  of  their  eternal  life  in  heaven.  "  He  that  eateth  Me, 
the  same  also  shall  live  by  INIc."  "  Do  this  as  a  memory  of  Me." 
This  is  wliat  we  mean  by  the  Christian  priesthood;  it  is  in  this 
sense  Christ's  priesthood  is  communicated  to  mortal  man.  There 
is  no  other  priesthood  but  the  one,  and  that  one  is  Christ's  own. 
The  mortal  man  is  the  agent  of  Christ,  through  whom  He  makes 
sensible  on  earth  His  perpetual  sacrifice  in  heaven ;  through  whom 
He    exercises    His   one    eternal    priesthood. 

"  Sacrifice  and  priesthood,"  says  the  Council  of  Trent,  "  are  so 
associated  together  by  the  ordinance  of  God  that  both  have  existed 
together    under    every  law  that  God    has    given   to   men."     (xxiii,   1.) 

From  the  very  beginning  of  the  human  race  God  appointed  that 
there  should  be  priests  among  men,  and  that  these  in  the  name 
of  their  brctlu'cn  should  offer  sacrifice.  Under  the  original  law, 
given  to  our  first  parents  and  their  children,  commonly  called  the 
Law  of  the  Patriarchs,  it  was  ordinarily  the  first-born  son,  though 
others   too  were    sometimes   authorized,  as    we    see   in  Abel.      Under 


THE  PRIESTHOOD.  49 

"the  law  given  to  Moses  on  Mount  Sinai,  it  was  the  sons  of  Aaron, 
himself  the  elder  brother  of  Moses.  So  deeply  rooted  was  tliis 
original  tradition  among  men  of  God's  requiring  to  be  worshiped 
by  sacrifice,  and  some  men  to  be  set  aside  who  should  oifer  sacri- 
fice in  the  name  of  their  brethren,  so  agreeable  was  this  to  tlie 
common  sentiments  of  mankind  in  their  dealings  with  God,  that  no 
people  seem  to  have  been  ever  ignorant  of  it.  Pagans,  idolators, 
and  even  savages  who  had  lost  the  knowledge  of  almost  every- 
thing else  concerning  God,  still  preserved  this  truth.  They  knew 
they  must  worship  Him  hy  sacrifice,  and  that  the  sacrifice  must  be 
■offered    by    those    who    were    constituted    priests. 

This  was  always  the  worship  that  God  required  from  man — the 
offering  of  sacrifice.  The  appointed  priest  offered  the  victim  in  the 
name  of  all.  The  people  stood  around  and  united  their  prayers 
and  praise  with  those  of  the  priest.  But  it  was  the  sacrifice  that 
made  their  prayers  agreeable  to  God,  because  the  sacrifice  united 
them  with  the  future  Great  High  Priest  who  was  to  offer  the  per- 
fect  sacrifice    on  Calvary. 

And  now  in  the  Holy  Mass  the  fiiithful  gather  around  the  altar 
•where    the  divine  victim    offers   Himself. 

With  Him  they  offer  their  adoration,  their  thanksgiving,  their 
cries  for  mercy,  their  supplication  for  God's  graces,  and  He  receiv- 
ing them  from  the  lips  and  hearts  of  His  brethren  makes  them 
all  His  own,  and  offers  them  to  His  eternal  Father.  Thus,  in 
the  Mass,  each  one  of  us  can  render  a  perfect  and  infinite  wor- 
ship through  our  Great  High  Priest. 

Nay,  more ;  as  He  gave  Himself  for  us  on  the  cross,  so  He 
gives  Himself  to  each  of  us  upon  the  altar.  Each  one  of  us  can 
claim  the  Victim  as  our  own,  and  thus,  in  the  Mass,  each  one 
of  the  faithful  present  becomes  himself  in  a  secondary  manner  a 
priest,  because  each  one  of  us  offers  the  divine  Victim.  Each  one 
of  us  can  say  with  truth :  Almighty  and  most  Holy  God — 
unworthy  sinner  as  I  am — I  offer  Thee  a  worship  wortliy  of 
Thyself.  "  Look  upon  Me  for  the  face  of  Thy  Christ,"  and  receive 
His  homage  and  supplication  as  my  own — since  Thou  delivered 
Him  for  us — and  He  gives  Himself  to  us.  Thus  is  fulfilled  the 
declaration  of  St.  Peter  addressed  to  every  Christian :  "  Ye  are 
a   holy  people,    a   royal   priesthood."     (ii  Peter.) 

The    old    sacrifices    appointed    by    God,    such    as    the    slaying   of 


50  SERMONS  OF  TUB  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

victims,  the  immolating  of  fruits,  and  other  articles  that  give  life 
and  service  to  man — all  tliese  were  inadequate  of  themselves. 
They  were  appointed  by  God,  and  they  had  a  value  in  His  eyes  as 
types  of  the  future  sacrifice  of  Christ.  They  all  pointed  to  Mount 
Calvary ;  they  were  all  acts  of  faith  in  the  Messiah  who  was  to 
come,  and  they  had  their  value  from  His  mysterious  sacrifice  upon 
the  cross.  When  this  was  once  offered,  then  the  reality  was 
accomplished.  There  was  no  more  room  for  types,  and  all  typical 
sacrifices  were  set  aside  by  God.  And  now  the  one,  true,  perfect 
and  divine  sacrifice  is  offered  every  day  all  over  the  earth,  by 
the  one  living  divine  priest,  Jesus  Christ,  through  the  visible 
ministry  of  His  mortal  priests,  and  thus  is  fulfilled  the  prophecy 
of  Malachy,  "  From  the  rising  of  the  sun  to  the  going  down 
of  the  same  in  every  place  there  is  sacrifice,  and  there  is 
offered    to    My    name    a    clean    oblation."     (Mai.  i,   2.) 

But  the  priesthood  of  Christ  was  not  only  a  homage  to  God, 
it  was  also  an  office  of  mediation  to  reconcile  fallen  man  with 
God.  Besides  worshiping  God,  our  Redeemer  came  to  lift  men 
up  from  their  fallen  state,  and  give  them  means  to  be  children 
of  God.  "  I,  when  I  shall  be  lifted  up,  I  shall  draw  all  things 
to    Myself." 

He  brought  to  men  light  and  strength.  He  not  only  brought 
these,  but  He  was  Himself  the  light  and  the  life.  He  was  the 
very  Word  of  God,  by  whom  all  things  were  made,  from  whom 
all  tilings  have  their  being,  and,  therefore,  the  light  of  our  souls 
is  to  see  Him,  and  the  life  of  our  souls  is  to  live  by  Him.  We 
see  Him  when  we  see  what  He  did  and  said — when  we  listen  to 
the  Gospel.  We  live  by  Him  when  Ave  eat  of  His  Flesh  and 
receive  His  graces.  "  I  am  the  light  of  the  world.  He  that  fol- 
lowetli  Me  walketh  not  in  darkness."  "  As  I  live  by  the  Father, 
so    he   that   eateth    the    same    also    shall    live   by    Me." 

This  is  the  fruit  to  men  of  Christ's  coming  on  earth :  that 
men's  souls  be  enlightened  by  His  truth,  and  receive  life  from 
His  own  life,  even  as  the  branch  has  all  its  life  from  the  sap 
of  the  vine  which  bears  it.  "  I  am  the  vine ;  ye  are  the  branches ; 
without  JNIe  you  can  do  nothing" — nothing  for  your  eternal  life 
in  heaven.  This,  then,  is  the  fruit  which  our  Lord  commissioned 
His  Apostles  to  bring  forth — fruit  that  shall  remain  till  the  end 
of  the   world,    and   shall    continue    to    ripen    and    to    multiply,    and 


THE  PRIESTHOOD.  51 

give  peace  and  joy  on  earth ;  and  which,  for  all  eternity,  shall 
remain  in  the  happiness  of  the  saints  and  the  glory  they  shall 
give  to  God  in  heaven ;  in  the  sanctification  of  sonls  enlightened 
and  sanctified  in  various  degrees,  according  to  the  measure  in 
which  they  shall  know  Christ,  and  fill  themselves  with  the  spirit  of 
Christ.  And  from  this  sanctification  of  souls  arises  the  civilization  of 
Christian  society.  For  what  is  civilization,  as  our  present  illustrious 
holy  Pontiff,  Leo  XIII,  has  said,  but  the  development  of  man 
living  in  society  ?  And  what  is  the  development  of  man  hut  the 
unfolding  of  that  which  makes  man  to  be  man,  and  not  a  mere 
animal — that  is,  the  image  of  God  in  his  soul  ?  "  Let  us  make 
man  after  our  own  image  and  likeness ; "  and  we  develop  this  image 
in    the    measure    in    which    Ave    copy    Christ    and   walk    in    His    life. 

This  communication  of  the  light  of  the  life  of  Christ  was  the 
office  of  His  priesthood.  It  was  begun  by  Himself.  It  was  spread 
through  the  world  by  the  Apostles — the  first  whom  He  called  and 
sent  with  the  powers  of  His  priesthood.  "As  the  Father  sent  Me, 
so  I  also  send  you.  Go  teach  all  nations;  baptize  them  in  the 
name  of  the  Father,  and  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost ;  and  lo ! 
I    am  with    you." 

It  has  been  spread  wider  and  wider,  and  has  been  kept  clear 
before  men  during  these  eighteen  centuries  by  the  preaching  of 
those  to  whom  that  priesthood  was  handed  down  :  the  bishops,  who 
hold  it  in  all  its  fullness :  and  the  j^riests  of  the  second  order, 
who  hold  not  indeed  its  fullness,  but  its  sublimest  powers  and 
those  most  needed  for  each  individual  soul — the  j^ower  and  grace 
to  preach  with  authority  and  effect ;  the  power  to  offer  the  Holy 
Sacrifice ;  the  power  to  purify  souls  by  loosing  them  from  their 
sins ;  the  power  to  sanctify  them  by  blessing  and  by  all  the  other 
means   of  grace. 

It  would  have  availed  little  to  have  these  truths  of  salvation 
once  proclaimed  if  they  had  not  been  preserved  by  living  teachers. 
Many  of  them  had  been  declared  by  God  in  the  beginning.  But 
they  had  been  lost  to  men  for  want  of  priests  devoted  to  their 
teaching.  Because  men's  earthly  inclinations,  their  sensualitv,  their 
pride  and  their  passions  led  them  to  violate  His  laws;  and  soon 
the  truths  on  which  those  laws  are  based  became  obscured  and 
many  of  them  entirely  blotted  out  from  their  souls.  Even  the 
primary  truth    that    underlies    all    others    had  been    abandoned,    and. 


52  SEBJIONS   OF   THE  THIRD   PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

instead  of  one  personal  God,  Creator  of  all  things,  a  loving  Father 
yet  jealous  of  His  honor,  a  just  Judge  uho  renders  to  every  one 
according  to  his  works,  they  imagined  to  themselves  a  multitude 
of  gods  like  unto  men  and  with  passions  similar  to  their  own. 
Even  the  most  refined  nations  held  gods  as  patrons  of  the  coarsest 
vices.  They  had  a  god  of  drunkenness,  a  god  of  thieving,  and  gods 
of  shameless   indecencies. 

All  this,  because  they  had  not  a  living  priesthood  to  keep  the 
truth  always  before  their  minds,  and  to  enforce  its  teachings  in  the 
j)ractice  of  their  lives.  Some  kind  of  priests,  indeed,  they  had. 
For  this  need  of  priests,  we  have  already  seen,  was  a  truth  that 
survived,  even  wdien  the  truth  of  one  God  Mas  lost.  Yet  they  were 
not  priests  of  God,  they  were  self-made  priests,  or  priests  made  by 
the  civil  power ;  priests  given  only  to  the  pomp  of  outward  Mor- 
ship ;  not  caring  to  teach  the  truths  of  morals.  Indeed,  like  the 
people,   they  had  not  tliose  truths    themselves. 

Only  the  Jews  preserved  the  original  truths  given  to  man, 
because  only  the  Jews  had  a  divine  priesthood,  with  authority  and 
command  from  God  to  teach.  "The  lips  of  the  priest  shall  keep 
knowledge,  and  they  shall  seek  the  law  from  his  moutli."  "All 
things  whatsoever  they  teach,  observe  and  do."  Even  the  Jewish 
priests,  however,  were  such  only  in  figure,  since  they  had  only  a 
typical  sacrifice,  and  consequently  even  their  ministry  Avas  weak ; 
the  fruits  of  it  were  fast  dying  out  when  our  Lord  appeared  on 
earth. 

But  the  Christian  priest  has  Christ  living  in  him,  speaking  by 
his  lips  and  giving  divine  efficacy  to  his  words.  • "  He  that  heareth 
you  heareth  Me."  Hence  it  is  by  the  priests  His  truths  have  been 
handed  down  to  our  day  with  the  same  clear  sound,  and  the 
same  certain  meaning,  and  the  same  exactness,  and  the  same  intrin- 
sic, living  energy  that  they  had  from  the  mouths  of  the  Apostles : 
because  they  are  always  the  words  of  the  same  priest,  Jesus  Christ, 
having  all  the  attributes  which  His  divine  priesthood  gives  to 
them. 

Last  Sunday  you  were  shown  how  these  truths  have  been 
steadfastly  proclaimed  to  all  the  world  by  the  great  High  Priest, 
the  Sovereign  Pontiff,  and  how  they  are  reaffirmed  to  separate 
peoples  by  councils  like  our  own.  But  to-day  we  are  con- 
sidering     how      they     are     brought     home     to     every    family,    and 


THE  PRIESTHOOD.  63 

impressed  on  every  mind,  and  enforced  in  every  life ;  to  all  who 
use  their  free  will  for  the  end  for  which  God  gave  it  to  them. 
And  this  is  done  by  the  ministry  of  the  priest. 

If  only  these  truths  were  kept  commonly  known  among  men 
in  general,  even  this  would  be  an  advantage  that  paganism  never 
had.  But  it  is  vastly  more  that  they  are  drunk  in  by  little 
children,  so  that  men  grow  up  with  them  from  before  the  days 
of  their  earliest  recollections ;  and  as  increasing  years  develop  their 
mental  powers  and  new  relations  in  life  give  them  need  of  more 
particular  knowledge,  so  new  knowledge  is  ever  offered  to  them. 
And  as  new  occupations  tend  to  crowd  out  of  sight  these  early 
teachings,  they  are  ever  renewed  in  their  minds  by  continued 
repetitions  and  fresh  explanations  and  illustrations.  And  who  are 
God's  instruments  for  thus  keeping  His  truths  fresh  in  each  indi- 
vidual soul  ?  They  are  the  priests — the  pastors  of  His  Church — 
in  their  continued  preaching  and  instructions. 

For  what  men  need — what  all  of  us  need — is  not  that  the 
truth  be  once  stated  and  received,  but  that  it  be  kept  before  our 
eyes,  so  that  we  may  never  forget  it,  or  once  forgetting  may  soon 
be  reminded  of  it  again. 

Let  the  most  earnest  Christian  reflect  what  would  be  the  state 
of  liis  soul  at  this  moment  if,  for  the  last  ten  or  twenty  years, 
he  had  never  heard  repeated  the  truths  that  he  learned  in  cliild- 
hood.  If,  with  all  his  pressure  of  business,  with  all  the  daily 
solicitations  of  his  evil  passions,  he  had  never  heard  the  sacred 
admonitions  of  the  priest — never  had  these  truths  renewed  in  his 
soul  by  the  living  words  that  Christ  has  addressed  to'  him  by  the 
living  priest.  And  still  more :  AYhat  would  be  the  general  con- 
dition of  society  if,  for  the  last  flfty  or  a  hundred  years,  there 
had  been  no  living  priest  to  teach  to  the  last  three  generations 
the  truths  of  Christianity  ?  We  see  it  from  time  to  time.  We 
saw  it  most  forcibly  in  the  last  century,  when  large  masses  of 
men,  ignorant  of  many  of  these  truths,  or  AvilfuUy  renouncing 
them,  undertook  to  reform  society,  as  in  the  excesses  of  the 
French  Hevolution,  and  in  the  outburst  only  fourteen  years  ago 
of  the   Communists  and   the  petroleuses  of  Paris. 

It  was  in  the  name  not  of  Jesus  Christ  but  of  Christ's 
enemies  (the  new  made  religion  of  humanity),  that  the  streets  of 
Paris     were     drenched    in    the     blood    of    her     best    citizens,     that 


54  SEBMONS  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

brothers  denounced  their  own  brothers,  and  children  gave  their 
fathers  to  the  guillotine ;  that  women  and  children  were  massacred 
as  dangerous  enemies.  And  even  now,  when  in  many  places 
society  is  held  in  fear  by  the  rumblings  as  of  a  threatened  earth- 
quake beneath  their  feet ;  who  arc  those  restless  masses  that  are 
kept  down  only  by  the  pressure  of  an  armed  government?  They 
are  those  who  know  not  or  who  reject  the  truths  which  our  Lord 
commissioned  His  priests  to  teach :  the  fear  of  God ;  the  obliga- 
tions we  all  owe  to  our  fellow-men,  and  the  obligation  to  subdue 
our  passions,  to  bear  the  evils  that  we  cannot  cure  without  doing 
wrong  to  others :  and  the  great  truth,  deterring  us  from  all  evil 
and  comforting  us  in  all  troubles,  that  man's  only  complete  hap- 
piness is  in  the  eternal  joys  of  heaven,  and  that  this  life  is  given 
us  to  purchase  these  joys  by  our  virtues  and  our  patient  bearing 
of  the  crosses  that  God  lays  on  us.  These  are  the  men  who  hate 
God's    priests. 

Now,  wliv  has  not  the  whole  world  run  into  those  excesses 
and  been  buried  under  those  miseries  ?  Because  the  truths  ot 
Christianity  and  His  life  are  preserved  in  man.  They  are  kept 
before  their  minds,  and  kept  not  as  abstract  truths,  but  made 
living  and  practical  in  the  model  life  of  our  Lord  Himself  on 
earth  and  of  the  saints  of  all  ages,  who  have  endeavored  to  copy 
His  life  and  holiness  in  their  own ;  in  all  good  Christians,  and 
in  men  who  hold  only  a  portion,  but  still  a  portion  of  them. 
And  who  are  they  that  hold  up  this  mirror  of  truth  and  holiness, 
but  the  priests  whom  He  Himself  has  appointed ;  whom  He  has 
prepared  under  the  training  of  His  Church ;  to  whom  He  has 
given  the  power  and  commission  to  tcacli  these  truths ;  to  whom, 
in  the  Holy  Sacrament  of  Orders,  He  has  communicated  the  grace 
to  preach  them  with  fidelity ;  whom  He  strengthens  every  day 
with  the  divine  food  of  His  own  adorable  Body  and  Blood  in 
the    Holy    Sacrament    of  the    Mass? 

It  is  they  to  whom  the  whole  world  is  indebted  for  the  pre- 
serving of  these  truths.  Even  when  the  sun  is  hidden  from  our 
eyes  by  clouds  we  still  walk  and  work  by  the  light  of  the  sun. 
So  men  and  even  whole  peoples  who  do  not  acknowledge*  the 
priests  of  God's  Church,  yet  hold  these  truths  from  the  tradi- 
tions of  society,  and  from  public  opinion ;  and  these  traditions 
are     kept    in  vigor    by   the     constant    teaching    of    the    Church.     A 


THE  PRIESTHOOD.  55 

great  writer,  learned  in  history  and  human  nature  has  said  that 
had  not  the  Popes  been  unyielding  in  upholding  the  bond  of 
marriage  the  sovereigns  of  Europe  would  come  to  live  like  the 
sultans    of  Constantinople. 

But,  dearly  beloved,  this  is  only  a  portion  of  what  God  gives 
us  through  His  priests.  When  the  Israelites  were  forty  years 
journeying  through  the  desert  to  reach  the  Promised  Land ;  besides 
the  multitude  of  lesser  favors  with  whicli  God  blessed  them,  there 
were  two  continuous  ones  which  overshadowed  all  the  rest,  and 
which  indeed  were  the  very  means  that  enabled  them  to  enjoy  all 
the  rest :  the  pillar  of  cloud  that  showed  them  the  road  by  which 
God  designed  them  to  travel ;  and  still  more  necessary,  the 
manna  which  every  morning  fell  from  the  clouds  to  be  their  food 
for  each  day's  journey.  AVithout  these,  with  all  their  courage, 
they  would    soon    have    perished    in    the  wilderness. 

All  these  things,  St.  Paul  tells  us,  were  given  in  figure  of  the 
sublimer  and  richer  realities  that  God  was  prepai'ing  for  the  world 
through  the    priesthood  of   His    Son. 

As  we  are  journeying  through  the  wilderness  of  this  life, 
with  all  its  fatigues  and  dangers,  to  the  promised  land  of  heaven. 
He  has  not  only  given  His  divine  word  as  light  to  guide  us,  but 
He    has    likewise    provided    Food   to    strengthen    us. 

Alas  !  we  know  too  well  by  our  experience  that  it  is  not  enough 
to  know  God  and  to  know  our  duties.  In  spite  of  our  knowledge 
the  temptations  around  us  are  not  always  resisted;  the  passions 
within  us  are  not  always  kept  in  due  subjection ;  the  enemies 
assailing  us  are  often  too  strong  to  be  repelled.  And  therefore 
has  He  furnished  us  with  abundant  Food,  falling  not  from  the 
clouds,  but  coming  down  from  the  highest  heavens  above.  And 
this  Food  He  has  appointed  should  be  furnished  to  us  every  day 
by  His  divine  Son  through  those  who  continue  His  priesthood  on 
earth. 

This  Food  I  need  not  tell  you,  in  its  perfection,  is  the  ador- 
able Eucharist  of  Our  Lord's  Body  and  Blood,  brought  down  to 
the  earth  every  morning  in  the  Holy  Sacrifice  of  the  Mass.  And 
while  this  is  the  perfection  and  the  essence  of  that  Food,  He 
has  furnished  a  number  of  other  forms  under  which  the  virtue 
and  the  life  of  Christ  is  communicated  to  our  souls,  till  we  can 
say  with  St.  Paul :  "  I  live  now ;  not  I,  but  Christ  liveth  in 
me." 


56  SUEMO:!^S  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

The  ricliest  of  these  forms  are  His  holy  Sacraments.  They 
all  derive  their  efficacy  from  the  Body  of  Christ,  which  was 
delivered  for  us,  and  the  Blood  of  Christ,  the  price  of  our 
redemption.  And  each  of  thcni  brings  with  it  a  multitude  of 
graces    especially    adapted    to    the    needs    of   our   soul    in   its  journey. 

And  besides  these  again  He  has  appointed,  through  His  Church, 
another  multitude  in  rich  variety  of  blessings  of  sacred  objects 
and  sacred  ceremonies,  of  forms  of  prayer  and  worship  each  one 
of  which  has  its  own  peculiar  efficacy,  suited  to  all  the  multitude 
of  our  spiritual  wants.  They  make  vivid  His  truths ;  they  defend 
us  against  our  enemies;  they  heal  our  souls  of  their  sins  and 
infirmities ;  they  console  us  in  our  trials ;  they  encourage  us  in 
our  difficulties ;  they  enlighten  us  in  our  perplexities ;  they  com- 
fort us  in  our  fears,  and  elevate  us  in  our  hopes.  And  all  these 
again,  as  they  are  fruits  of  Christ's  priesthood,  so  He  continues 
as  our  priest  to  give  them  to  tis  through  those  Avhoni  He  has 
empowered    to    exercise    that   priesthood    continually    among   us. 

It  was  the  priest  who  received  us  from  our  mother's  arms — 
poor  outcasts  from  paradise — children  of  the  fallen  Adam  —  nay, 
as  St.  Paul  says,  children  of  wrath — and  in  the  waters  of  Bap- 
tism He  gave  us  the  new  birth — to  be  called  and  to  be  the 
children  of  God.  It  was  the  priest  who,  when  we  were  still  too 
tender  to  listen  to  his  own  teachings,  kept  our  mothers  reminded 
of  their  duty,  and  enforced  it  on  them,  to  give  us  the  first  knowl- 
edge of  God,  of  the  divine  Child  of  Bethlehem,  and  of  His 
Blessed  Mother — our  mother  likewise.  It  was  the  priest  who  took 
up  our  mother's  teachings,  and  led  us  to  a  deeper  knowledge  of 
the  life  and  sufferings  of  our  Blessed  Redeemer,  of  the  power  of 
prayer,  of  the  Commandments  of  God  and  of  His  Holy  Church, 
and  of  all  the  means  of  sanctifying  our  souls.  And  when  our 
souls  had  been  wounded  by  sin — perhaps  wounded  unto  death — it 
Avas  the  priest  to  whom  we  confided  our  weakness  and  our  unhappy 
falls.  It  was  he  that  set  before  us  the  motives  of  contrition  and 
pointed  out  the  ways  to  avoid  future  falls.  It  was  ho  that 
encouraged  us  to  trust  in  God's  mercy,  and  he  that  applied  that 
mercy  to  our  souls  in  the  pardon  that  he  had  power  to  issue  to 
us  in  the  name  of  God.  And  when  we  shall  come  to  that  dread 
moment  when  earthly  friends  can  do  nothing  more  for  us,  it  is 
through   the    priest    that     God    Himself    will     come     to     cleanse     us. 


THE  PRIESTHOOD.  57 

once  more  from  all  the  sins  of  our  life,  to  feed  us  with  the 
heavenly  bread  that  shall  strengthen  us  like  Elias  to  complete  our 
journey  to  the  mountain  of  God ;  to  anoint  us  for  our  last  deci- 
sive struggle  with  the  enemy  of  our  souls ;  to  purify  our  eyes, 
our  ears  and  our  lips,  before  they  close  on  earth  to  open  in 
heaven  where  we  shall  see  and  hear  the  things  which  no  earthly 
eye  hath  seen,  no  ear  hath  heard,  nor  hath  it  entered  into  the 
mind  of  man  to  conceive.  In  a  word,  dearly  beloved,  all  those 
things  on  earth  which  do  make  life  well  worth  living,  all  come  to 
us  from  our  Great  High  Priest  Jesus  Christ  through  those  whom  He 
sends — as  His  Father  sent  Him — His  earthly  priests.  The  life  that 
is  worth  living,  is  a  Christian  life,  the  life  of  the  sons  of  God. 
This  life,  like  the  air  we  breathe,  we  are  drinking  in  almost 
unconsciously  daily  and  hourly  in  all  the  unnoticed  means  of  grace 
which  our  High  Priest  provides.  And  as  besides  the  air  we  breathe, 
our  bodies  are  nourished  (from  time  to  time)  with  various  kinds 
of  food,  and  healed  with  medicines,  and  refreshed  with  delicacies, 
so  our  souls,  from  time  to  time,  are  nourished  by  some  of  the 
sacraments,  or  healed  from  sin  by  others :  or  they  are  led  to 
higher  perfection  by  the  various  devotions  and  religious  exercises 
of  the  Church.  And  all  these  are  ministered  to  us  by  men  like 
ourselves,  mortal  and  weak  and  liable  to  sin,  yet  strong  and  divine 
in  the  works  they  do  through  the  ministry  of  the  priesthood  of 
Christ. 

Such  is  the  love  of  Jesus  for  your  souls.  Because  it  is  for 
you  He  gives  these  blessings.  For  you  He  appoints  His  priests 
and  gives  them  their  wondrous  powers  not  for  their  exultation  and 
pride,  but  they  may  furnish  your  souls  with  light  and  life.  You 
are  the  fruits  He  wishes  to  gather.  God  grant  that  you  may 
never  disappoint  His  loving  heart.  God  grant  that  you  may  fill 
your  minds  with  the  knowledge  of  Him,  and  your  hearts  with 
the  love  of  Him,  so  that  united  here  in  this  sacrifice  that  you 
may  join    in    His    worship    and    share    in     His     eternal    priesthood. 

And  to  you,  venerable  Fathers  of  the  Episcopate,  Eeverend 
Brothers  of  the  Priesthood,  I  will  not  presume  to  address  any 
exhortation  of  my  own.  I  speak  to  you  rather  in  the  words  of 
one  whose  life  of  self-sacrifice  so  filled  him  with  the  spirit  of  our 
great  High  Priest,  that  for  more  than  four  hundred  years  this 
book  has  been  teaching  to  both  priest  and  laity  the  perfect 
Following    of  Christ. 


58  SUBMOI^S  OF  TUB  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

"Oh!  liow  great  and  honorable  is  the  office  of  priests,  to  conse- 
crate with  sacred  words  the  Lord  of  majesty,  to  bless  Him  with 
their  lips,  to  hold  Him  with  their  hands,  to  receive  Him  with 
their  mouth,  and  to  administer  Him  to  others.  Oh !  how  clean 
ought  those  hands  to  be,  how  pure  that  mouth,  how  unspotted 
the  heart  of  a  priest,  with  whom  tlie  Lord  of  purity  so  often 
enters.  When  a  priest  celebrates  he  glorifies  God,  he  rejoices  the 
angels,  he  edifies  the  Church.  He  helps  the  living,  he  obtains 
rest   for   the  dead,  and  makes    himself  partaker  of  all  that  is  good." 

Let  thy  grace,  O  Almighty  God,  assist  us,  that  we  who  have 
undertaken  the  office  of  the  priesthood  may  serve  Thee  worthily 
and   devoutly   in    all    purity   and    good    conscience. 

And  if  Me  cannot  live  in  so  great  innocency  as  we  ought, 
grant  us  at  least  to  bewail  the  sins  we  have  committed,  and  in 
the  spirit  of  humility  and  the  resolution  of  a  good  will,  to  serve 
Thee    more   fervently   for   the    time   to   come. 


lit.  Rev.  F.  Manogue,  U.D. 


lit.  lit-v.  J.  .1.  Aaiii.  J>.I). 


lit.  Jier.  Win.  II.  Gross,  U.D. 


lit.  Rev.  J.  F.  Shanahan,  D.I). 


JlI.  ;.Vf.  ./.  JUhi, t.s,sy,  D.U 


Rt.  Rev.  U.  J.  Mrt^iiaUl,  D.I). 


Rt.  Rev.  John  LouijIUin,  D.D. 


Rt.  Rev    I'.  J.  IkUltn.  D.J). 


Rt.   Itev.  'JobiUK  Mullen,  D.D. 


%l\^  ^mtg  ifi  Up  ^limt^, 


SERMOU  OF  EiaST  REY.  J.  F.  SHAMHAH,  D.D., 


BISHOP   OF  HARRISBURG. 


"God  is  faithful:  by  whom  you  are  called  unto  the  fellowship  of  His  Son,  Jesus 
Christ  our  Lord.  Now,  I  beseech  you,  brethren,  by  the  name  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  that  you  all  speak  the  same  thing,  and  that  there  be  no  schisms  among 
you;  but  that  you  be  perfect  in  the  same  mind,  and  in  the  same  judgment." — 
I.  Cor.,  c.  i,  V.  9-10. 

YOU  "witnessed  this  morning,  Fathers  ana  brethren,  une  opening 
of  this  new  Plenary  Coun^^il,  and  you  could  hardly  fail  to 
be  stri>ck,  as  I  was,  with  the  solemnity  of  th.e  occasion.  You 
saw  new  evidence,  if  evidence  were  needed,  of  the  wondrous 
spiritual  organization  that  brings  together  at  the  call  of  authority 
such  a  body  of  prelates  and  clergy  from  every  part  of  this  vast 
country — from  Canada  to  the  Gulf,  from  the  Atlantic  to  the 
Pacific — to  confer  together  for  a  period,  and  wiact  such  legis- 
lation as  may  seem  most  conducive  to  the  spiritual,  welfare  of  the 
multitudes  of  the  faithful  committed  to  their  keeping.  You  have 
seen  before  you  men  of  many  distant  nationalities,  men  of  many 
divergent  opinions,  doubtless,  in  secular  matters — and  it  may  be, 
too,  in  minor  points  of  ecclesiastical  discipline — and  you  know 
they  have  come  together  ready  to  sink  individual  preferences 
in  the  common  good,  because  they  have  come  as  brethren  of 
one    household    united     in    faith     and    charity. 

This  spirit  of  unity,  calling  us  unto  the  fellowship  of  Jesus 
Christ,  as  the  Apostle  says,  is  a  token  of  the  mighty  society  of 
which  those  leaders  are  members,  made  compact  with  you  in 
Christ,  dearly  beloved  of  the  faithful.  We  are  all  of  the  one 
household  of  faith.  And  the  Apostle  exhorts  us,  like  the  Corin- 
thians,   to    be   perfect    in    one    mind   and    one  judgment. 

(59) 


60  SURMOIfS  OF  TUB  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

God  calls  us  unto  the  fellowship  of  Christ  His  Son ;  we  obey 
His  call ;  we  are  united  in  this  supernatural  fellowship ;  we  stand 
within  the  hallowed  circle  of  Christian  unity;  we  are  citizens  of 
God's  kingdom  on  earth ;  we  are  members  of  His  holy  and 
enduring  Church.  It  has  been  thought  well  that  after  what  has 
been  said — and  said  so  eloquently — to-day  on  "  The  Church  in  Her 
Councils,"  something  should  be  presented  to-night  on  "  The  Unity 
of  the  Church."  Hence  the  text  I  have  chosen  and  the  words 
I  have  so  far  uttered,  as  intending  to  lead  to  a  fuller  develop- 
ment   of  the   subject. 

The  Church,  we  say,  is  one.  She  must  be  one  or  she  is  no 
Church.  AVhat  do  we  mean  when  we  say  that  the  Church  is 
one — when  we  speak  of  the  unity  of  the  Church  ?  How  is  the 
Church    one  ? 

"  Because,"  says  our  catechism,  the  essence  of  theology,  "  all  its 
members  agree  in  one  faith,  are  all  in  one  communion  and  are 
all   under    one    head." 

Her  members  agree  in  one  faith.  Unity  of  faith  is  the  com- 
mon belief  in  all  the  articles  of  faith  which  have  been  revealed 
by  Christ,  and  so  declared  by  His  Church.  Her  membe3;s  agree 
in  communion.  Unity  of  communion  is  the  union  in  one  society 
of  all  who  profess  this  faith,  with  participation  in  the  same 
sacraments  and  the  same  prayers,  under  the  guidance  of  their 
legitimate  pastors,  and  all  under  the  Roman  Pontiff,  who  is  their 
head  upon  earth.  Unity  of  communion  preserves  the  unity  of 
faith.  Union  with  and  submission  to  the  legitimate  pastors  pre- 
serve   the    unity   of  communion. 

There  can,  in  the  nature  of  things,  be  but  one  true  faith. 
Truth  is  one  under  every  aspect.  Its  opposite  is  error.  There 
are  numberless  errors,  for  there  are  numberless  ways  of  opposing 
the  truth.  God  gave  man  the  true  faith  that  he  might  embrace 
it  and  not  fall  into  error.  AVhy  else  should  He  have  revealed 
it?  He  willed,  then,  that  man  should  have  unity  of  faith.  To 
secure  this  unity  among  men  scattered  throughout  the  world  and 
differing  in  language,  habits  and  propensities.  He  established  a 
unity  of  communion — that  is,  from  such  conflicting  elements  He 
formed  a  single  spiritual  society;  and,  leaving  the  members  sub- 
ject to  their  own  governments,  laws  and  institutions.  He  gained 
their   willing   adhesion   to   lofty   religious   precepts,    and   their   loving 


THE  UNITY  OF  THE  CHURCH.  61 

allegiance  to  a  settled  ecclesiastical  authority.  He  founded  a  society, 
in  a  word,  of  which  all  the  xiierabers  M'ould  agree  in  one  faith, 
be  all  in  the  same  communion,  and  be  all  under  one  head. 
This    society,    need    I    say,    is    the    Church. 

The  Church  being  thus  formed  through  unity  of  faith  and 
unity  of  communion,  there  are  two  ways  of  separating  from  her : 
one  by  renouncing  the  faith — this  is  heresy ;  the  other  by  with- 
drawing from  the  communion  of  her  prayers  and  rites,  and 
rejecting    her    authority — this    is    schism 

Men  are  scattered  over  the  world.  How  is  it  possible  to'  pre- 
serve this  unity  of  faith  and  communion  among  them?  God  in 
His  wisdom  has  provided  a  means.  He  has  instituted  a  ministry 
for  His  Church  commissioned  and  charged  to  teach  the  faith,  to 
administer  the  Sacraments,  officiate  in  divine  worship  and  govern 
the  Church.  This  ministry  is  made  up  of  several  orders  called 
the  hierarchy.  You  see  the  great  body  of  priests  discharging  their 
sacred  functions  over  broad  areas  under  the  jurisdiction  of  a 
minister  of  a  higher  order  called  a  bishop.  You  see  him  again 
holding  close  communion  with  the  other  bishops  of  a  province  or 
nation. 

But  these  bishops,  numerous  as  they  are,  and  often  remote 
from  each  other,  with  their  differences  of  race  and  habits  of 
thought,  might  teach  different  doctrines  and  form  conflicting  socie- 
ties or  schools  of  opinion  which  they  might  set  up  as  Churches. 
Without  going  so  far,  they  might  deviate  widely  in  ceremonial  and 
Church  government.  How  are  these  dangers  averted?  Behold  the  wis- 
dom of  God  !  You  see  bishops  coming  together  from  afar,  as  during 
these  days,  in  solemn  council  to  confer  with  each  other  and  with 
their  brethren  of  the  other  orders  of  the  clergy,  in  the  light  of 
the  spirit  of  God,  as  to  the  best  means  of  preserving  uniformity 
of  discipline  and  guarding  against  loss  of  unity  of  faith.  But 
they  come  not  together  of  themselves.  Their  enactments  are  not 
effective  until  ratified  by  higher  authority.  Christ  has  set  one  as 
bishop  of  bishops  over  all  the  rest  whose  office  is  to  confirm  his 
brethren,  as  Christ  said  to  Peter — whose  prerogative  it  is  to  kccj^ 
the  unity  of  the  spirit  in  the  bond  of  peace.  On  him  Christ  has 
conferred  the  primacy  of  honor  and  of  jurisdiction,  and  placed  him 
on  high  to  look  over  and  guard  the  whole  Church  and  be  her 
visible    centre    of  unity. 


62  ^"iUBiiojsrs  OF  the  third  plenary  council. 

"  Thou  art  Peter  and  upon  this  rock  will  I  build  My  Church," 
says  our  Lord.  "  I  will  give  thee  the  keys  of  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven."  "Feed  My  sheep."  "Confirm  thy  brethren."  The 
primacy  of  Peter  being  destined  to  preserve  the  unity  of  the 
Church,  it  must  have  duration  and  permanence.  His  prerogative, 
like  that  of  the  other  Apostles,  has  been  given  in  the  Church 
and  for  the  Church.  It  is  not  personal  merely,  but  through  him 
for  the  Church,  and  therefore,  cannot  perish  with  his  death.  If 
the  primacy  of  Peter  is  the  rock  on  which  the  Church  is  built, 
it  must  last  as  long  as  the  Church  will  last.  Peter  is  the  shep- 
herd of  the  flock  of  Jesus  Christ.  His  pastoral  ministry  then  must 
extend  to  all  times  and  all  places.  By  the  institution  of  the 
episcopacy,  the  particular  Churches  have  a  grand  principle  of  unity. 
The  universal  Church  has  then  greater  need  of  a  bishop  of  bishops 
to  keep  the  body  of  the  Lord  from  dismemberment.  "Upon  Peter," 
says  St.  Cyprian,  "is  founded  the  unity  of  the  whole  Church; 
he  has  transmitted  his  primacy  to  the  Roman  Church,  which  is 
the  See  of  Peter  with  which  all  the  other  Churches  must  be  in 
accord." 

The  primacy  of  the  Pope  is  a  necessary  deduction  from  the  very 
idea  of  the  Church.  It  is  the  one,  living,  personal  representation 
of  the  grand  principles  of  authority,  alone  capable  of  preserving  the 
unity  of  faith,  and  of  directing  with  strong  and  sure  hand  towards 
the  sovereign  end,  the  activity  and  energy  of  all  the  orders  and 
of  all  the  members  of  this  glorious  organism  which  w-e  know  as 
the    Church. 

The  supremacy  of  Rome  in  the  Church  is  the  arrangement  of 
God.  AVhy  else  should  the  Churches  yield  to  her  such  free  and 
willing  obedience?  And  so  you  find  in  her  a  combination  of 
admirable  though  seemingly  opposite  qualities  :  strictness  with  moder- 
ation ;  unshaken  resolve  with  tenderest  indulgence ;  ceaseless  guard 
over  the  deposit  of  the  faith  with  noblest  encouragement  to  true 
temporal  and  material  progress.  Thus  does  she  divinely  rule  the 
Church    and    uphold    its    essential    unity. 

According  as  the  Church  extended  her  limits  and  the  nations 
flocked  to  her  shelter,  it  was  necessary  that  the  central  power 
should  be  stronger  and  stronger,  and  the  unitive  power  of  the 
Popes  be  exercised  with  ever  increasing  energy.  And  so,  whenever 
the    storms    broke    loose    with    more  fury,   threatening    to    engulf  the- 


THE  UNITY  OF  THE  CHURCH.  63 

bark  of  Peter ;  whenever  pride  above  or  revolt  below  maae  tlie 
danger  of  schism  imminent,  the  nations  turned  towards  Rome,  eager 
to  liear  tlie  voice  of  Peter,  which  was  always  the  voice  of  truth 
and  right.  We  wonder  at  the  energy  and  tenacity  of  ancient  Rome 
in  establishing  her  dominion  through  the  policy  of  lier  senate  and 
the  valor  of  her  armies.  Christian  Rome  aftbrds  us  a  grander 
spectacle.  She  surpasses  pagan  Rome  in  the  heroism  of  her  faith. 
She  founds  the  universal  Church  on  the  supremacy  of  her  ecclesi- 
astical spirit  and  the  spontaneous  submission  of  the  faithful.  If 
Christianity  has  not  confined  itself  in  some  obscure  corner  like  a 
sect ;  if  it  has  not  crystalized  in  its  forms  like  the  religion  of  the 
Hindoos ;  if  European  energy  has  not  sunk  enervate  in  luxury  and 
bondage  as  in  the  East ;  we  owe  it  solely  to  that  principle  of  life 
and  unity;  we  owe  it  to  this,  that  the  Church  forms  one  compact 
whole  under  tlie  direction  of  a  ciiief  whose  eye  takes  in  the  whole 
world,  whose  word  all  listen  to  with  respect,  who  is  the  father 
and  teacher  of  Christendom,  to  whom  Jesus  Christ  has  communicated 
his  full  powers  in  the  person  of  St.  Peter,  to  feed,  to  guide  and 
govern   the    universal  Church. 

No  kingdom,  no  government  of  the  world  has !  furnished  the 
model  of  the  glorious  constitution  of  the  Church  or  can  attain  its 
perfection.  The  Church  is  a  monarchy,  since  it  has  a  ruler  who 
holds  the  plenitude  of  power,  who  commands  all,  and  all  obey. 
The  Church  is  an  aristocracy,  for  with  the  supreme  ruler  there  is 
the  episcopate,  sharing  with  him  the  government  of  the  Church  and 
holding  its  place,  too,  by  divine  institution.  The  Church  is  a  democ- 
racy, for  in  this  kingdom  all  offices,  even  to  the  highest  dignity, 
even  to  the  triple  diadem  of  the  sovereign  liead,  may  be  gained 
by  the  humblest  born  citizen.  The  Church,  then,  combines  in  her 
constitution  the  chief  features  of  the  three  forms  of  civil  society, 
hitherto  best  known  in  history.  Through  the  primacy  she  possesses 
the  strength  and  grandeur  of  that  unity  by  which  she  embraces  the 
nations  of  the  earth,  becoming  thus,  in  truth  and  by  exceptional 
privilege,  the  universal,  the  Catholic  Church,  as  called  for  by  the 
very  notion    of   Christianity,  which    is    the    religion    of  mankind. 

This  wondrous  constitution  of  the  Church,  received  from  Christ, 
it  is  that  makes  her  strong — so  strong  that  the  gates  of  hell 
cannot  prevail  against  her.  Thus  organized,  she,  and  she  alone, 
bears    the    recognized    marks    of    her    divinity.       She    is    one,    holy. 


64  SERMONS  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

Catholic  and  Apostolic.  We  proclaim  this  in  our  creed.  It  is 
as  one,  indeed,  that  we  are  regarding  her ;  but,  what,  in  few  words, 
are  those  four  signs,  but  the  essential  qualities  of  revelation  itself, 
made  manifest  always  and  everywhere — in  every  age,  in  every 
clime?  What  are  they,  tell  mc,  but  the  prolonged  action  of  Jesus 
Christ  ever  living  in  His  Church  and  permeating  it  with  His 
spirit?  Whatever  religious  society  wants  any  of  these  marks  is 
wanting  in  a  quality  essential  to  the  M'orkings  of  Christ,  and 
cannot  therefore    be  the    true   Church. 

Look  at  this  more  closely.  The  fundamental  character  of  Chris- 
tian revelations  is  the  authority  of  the  infallible  Word  of  God, 
by  means  of  which  all  men  come  by  the  shortest  way  to  knowl- 
edge of  the  truth.  Its  object  is  the  unity  of  the  Church  on  the 
basis  of  unity  of  fiith  and  ecclesiastical  communion.  For,  the 
prototype  of  the  Church,  one  God  in  three  persons,  is  one.  Christ 
is  one  with  His  Father :  "  The  Father  and  I  are  one."  The 
kingdom  of  the  elect  is  one  with  Christ  and  the  Father.  Those 
regenerated  in  Him  through  the  Church  must  be  one,  as  by  their 
corporeal  birth  they  are  one  race  in  Adam.  In  the  sight  of  the 
spirit  of  God  mankind  is  also  one,  forming  an  organism  whose 
characteristic  is  unity;  a  society  of  life  and  love  in  God,  if  its 
raenibers  are  true  to  Him,  the  household  of  the  chosen,  mIio  dwell 
in  the  new  terrestrial  paradise,  the  Church.  The  Lord  is  come 
to  gather  together  those  whom  sin  and  error  had  dispersed.  Unity 
was  the  object  of  the  prayer  He  addressed  to  His  Father  just 
before    His    passion. 

It  is  by  her  unity  that  the  Church  will  be  known  by  the  world 
as  the  true  spouse  of  Christ  by  being  of  one  body  and  one  spirit. 
The  Apostle  exhorts  the  faithful  to  unity:  "I  beseech  you,  brethren, 
by  the  name  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  that  you  all  speak  the 
same  thing,  and  that  there  be  no  schisms  among  you."  ",The  very 
derivation  of  the  word  Church,"  says  St.  Chrysostom,  "means  unity 
and  unanimity.  In  that  unity  the  Church  is  beautiful  like  unto 
God,  the  eternal  beauty;  like  unto  heaven,  which  knows  not  the 
deformity  of  sin — sin  which  alone  is  the  cause  of  division.  For 
moral  division  goes  before  national  and  sectional  separation.  Unity, 
while  it  is  the  beauty  of  the  Church,  is  also  her  strength.  Her 
unity    it    is   that    makes    her  invincible." 

Why  is  there  a  Church  at  all?     Is  it  not  for  the  sanctificatiou  of 


THE  UNITY  OF  THE  CHURCH.  65 

man  through  the  truth?  Is  it  not  to  win  him  from  sin  to  virtue? 
to  lead  him  from  earth  to  heaven?  Then,  holiness  is  a  second 
characteristic  of  the  Church,  just  as  the  sanctity  of  the  doctrines 
of  Christ  is  proof  of  His  divine  mission.  But,  He  came  on  earth 
and  died  for  all.  He  placed  salvation  within  reach  of  all.  His 
Church,  then,  must  be  Catholic  or  universal — no  territorial  limits — 
spread  over  the  whole  earth.  But,  furthermore,  it  must  have  come 
down  through  the  ages  by  unbroken  succession  from  the  Apostles, 
and  must  be  ever  the  same  to  the  end  of  the  world.  It  is,  then. 
Apostolic.  Reject  one  of  these  marks,  and  you  reject  the  Church 
itself;  you  blot  out  Christianity,  since  you  destroy  one  of  its 
essential   attributes. 

AYhere,  then,  do  you  find  this  one,  holy,  Catholic  and  Apostolic 
Church  ?  You  see  numbers  who  have  gone  out  from  her  group- 
ing themselves  together  and  calling  themselves  Churches.  But,  the 
one  grand,  easily  recognized  mark  of  the  true  Church  is,  that  it  is 
always  one  and  the  same ;  while  the  others  are  always  contradic- 
tory to  her  and  at  variance  with  each  other.  Their  record  is  the 
record  of  their  variations.  None  of  the  sects  dares  seriously  to 
claim  the  title  of  Catholic ;  or  if  individuals  here  and  there  attempt 
it,  they  are  put  down  as  absurd  even  by  their  co-religionists. 
There  is  but  one  Church  found  all  over  the  world,  and  embracing 
all  classes  in  one  faith,  in  one  form  of  worship,  with  a  stable 
hierarchy,  and  spoken  of  in  tongues  without  number  as  the  one, 
holy,  Catholic  Church. 

She  is  Catholic  solely  because  she  is  one,  endowed  with  the 
principle  of  her  unity,  the  ever-living  authority  of  a  teaching,  in- 
fallible body,  with  its  infallible  head  and  living  centre  of  unity, 
the    Pope,  the  Vicar  of  Christ. 

It  is  in  her  alone  that  is  found  tlie  grand  and  incontestable 
seal  of  God  and  of  His  truth — unity,  in  which  alone  the  human 
mind  is  satisfied  in  its  aspirations,  and  by  which  the  work  of  God 
is  made  manifest  through  the  ages.  The  history  of  the  Church  is 
but  the  history  of  the  struggles  of  the  Church  to  preserve  that 
unity  in  spite  of  the  elements  of  discord  and  the  spirit  of  nation- 
ality, and  the  forces  of  heresy  and  schism,  ever  trying  to  rend  her 
asunder.  And  in  this  never-ending  battle,  sometimes  the  Church 
succeeds  in  winning  back  to  herself  tlie  foes  of  her  unity ;  some- 
times she  is  compelled,  when  the  disease  is  incurable,  to  cut  off 
the    gangrened    parts    to    save   the    healthy  members. 


66  SER2I0XS  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

How  different  the  course  of  civil  societies !  States  would  perish 
if  they  did  not  make  compromises  and  modify  their  legislation 
under  pressure  of  circumstances.  But  no  peril,  no  disaster,  can 
force  the  Church  to  modify  a  single  dogma.  It  is  not  strange, 
says  a  philosopher,  that  one  should  save  himself  from  ruin,  by 
knowing  how  to  give  way  on  occasion,  but  that  the  Church 
should  ever  stand  inflexible  marks  her  divinity.  Rome  has  never 
bowed  before  heresies,  no  matter  how  alarming.  The  emperors  of 
the  East  proved  recreant ;  the  barbarian  hordes  that  overran  the 
empire  became  overwhelmingly  Arian,  and  threatened  the  subver- 
sion of  Rome ;  but  Rome  held  fast  to  Catholic  unity.  She  cut 
off"  the  Greek  Church  from  her  communion,  with  sorrow  indeed, 
yet  undismayed  by  the  fact  that  she  was  cutting  off  the  half  of 
the  Christian  world.  Being  one,  she  is  the  divine  embodiment  of 
Christianity,  the  body  of  the  Lord  who  continues  to  become  incar- 
nate and  take  form  in  her,  and  yet  is  ever  her  life-giving  prin- 
ciple. Being  one,  she  must  be  exclusive.  Outside  of  her  pale  she 
sees  sects,  professions,  schools  of  active  thought,  earnest  working 
associations.  Churches  with  limiting  designations ;  but  not  the  one, 
Catholic  Church.  As  she  cannot  lose  nor  deny  her  prerogative  of 
Spouse  of  Christ,  of  the  Body  of  the  Lord,  she  cannot  admit 
other    bodies    on    an    equality    with    her. 

Take  away  unity,  and  Catholicity  is  impossible.  Tired  out  with 
dividing  and  subdividing  into  sects,  men  will  seek  soon  some  kind  of 
reunion,  some  shadow  of  compactness.  Rulers  see  their  opportu- 
nity, and  so-called  national  Churches  spring  into  ephemeral  exist- 
ence. This  nationalizing  of  religion  has  ever  been  the  anguish  of 
the  universal  Church.  Admit  this  principle,  and  you  have,  at 
best,  but  an  aggregation  of  independent  Churches  with  their  inev- 
itable and  rapidly  growing  antagonisms.  To  neutralize  such  ele- 
ments of  dissolution,  a  sole,  a  central  and  unitive  power  must 
exist  in  the  Church.  Our  modern  creeds  have  followed  the  steps 
of  the  ancient  national  systems  where  the  frontier  of  the  State  is 
the    frontier    of  the    religion. 

And  wlicre  government  influences  do  not  directly  control  them, 
as  witli  lis,  yet  do  we  not  see  a  similar  tendency  to  sectional  or 
political  division?  Have  Ave  not  seen  a  Church  North  and  a  Church 
South — a  Church  endorsing  this  or  that  candidate  or  party  on  mere 
political   grounds  ?     What   wonder   that  members   with  opposite  views 


THE   UNITY  OF  THE  CHURCH,  67 

on  financial  or  industrial  questions  resent  this  j)ulpit  antagonism 
to  their  honest  opinions  on  secular  matters,  and  class  their  Church 
with  the  other  political  agencies!  AVhat  wonder  that  youth  soon 
learn  to  covertly  despise,  and  as  they  grow  older,  to  scoflf  at  all 
religion.  What  wonder,  in  the  face  of  all  these  disentegrating 
causes,  that  faith  dies  out;  that  doubt  prevails;  that  indifference  to 
a  future  state  is  widespread;  that  reckless  indulgence  of  every  pas- 
sion seems  the  creed  of  growing  multitudes;  that  agnosticism  is 
the  fashion  of  the  cultured,  and  God  is  a  mere  form  of  expres- 
sion; while  infidel  blasphemy  is  applauded  by  the  crowd. 

The  very  expression,  national  or  sectional  Church,  implies  a  con- 
tradiction in  terms.  In  its  very  nature  the  Church  rises  above 
nationality.  If  the  whole  Church  were  parcelled  out  into  national 
Churches,  what  would  become  of  Christianity?  It  would  soon  be 
no  more  than  the  institutions  of  Greece  and  Rome,  a  matter  of 
interest  and  speculation  for  the  historian  or  archseologist.  A  terri- 
torial Church  inspires  no  respect,  no  true  devotion.  Government 
power  and  national  pride  are  its  support.  The  government  protects 
it  for  its  supposed  influence  with  the  masses;  but  the  masses,  at 
heart,  despise  it  in  spite  of  the  protection  of  power,  or  rather 
because  of  such  protection.  So  much  for  the  want  of  a  bond  of 
unity. 

But  if  the  Church  would  be  free  from  the  trammels  of  the  State ; 
if  she  would  assert  her  freedom  of  action  in  her  own  sphere  in 
the  world,  she  is  far  from  wrapping  herself  up  in  a  cold  and 
haughty  disdain  of  the  world.  Her  mission,  on  the  contrary,  is  to 
penetrate  the  world  with  her  spirit.  She  takes  human  nature  as  it 
is  to  ennoble  and  sanctify  it.  Man  has  not  an  idea  in  his  mind, 
a  desire  in  his  heart,  an  aspiration  in  his  soul  to  which  the 
Church  does  not  assign  its  proper  end  and  assure  its  development 
and  exercise  and  legitimate  object.  Within  her  pale  genius  finds 
room  to  spread  its  wings  and  take  boldest  flight  towards  the 
sublimest  truth.  The  pious,  humble  soul,  content  to  love  and 
wait  in  peace  and  recollection,  there  finds  the  happiness  he  seeks. 
The  Church  has  a  place  at  her  banquet-table  for  the  man  of  the 
world  and  the  recluse,  for  the  scholar  and  the  artist ;  for  the 
monarch  and  the  struggler  for  his  daily  bread.  Well,  then,  may  we 
say,  with  a  profound  observer,  the  Catholic  regards  the  Church 
with  deepest   reverence    and    devotion.      To   rise  up    against    her    is 


68  suBMO^''S  OF  the  third  plenary  council, 

abhorrent  to  his  nature ;  to  destroy  unity  is  a  heinous  crime.  The 
idea  of  community  of  prayer  and  feeling  with  his  brethren  of  the 
faith  satisfies  his  reason  and  imagination  and  coincides  Avith  his 
loftiest  notions  of  duty.  How  grand,  indeed,  the  thought,  that  those 
myriads  scattered  over  the  world,  with  free-will  to  indulge  in  any 
wild  vagary  of  error,  and  with  every  peculiarity  of  race  and  char- 
acter, yet  make  up  one  great  brotherhood  in  Christ  to  promote 
each  others  spiritual  welfare ;  becoming  one  day  reconciled  and  united 
with  each  other  in  the  faith,  as  mankind  are  reconciled  with  God 
through   the   incarnation   and  death  of  His    Son. 

As  Christ  is  one  and  His  work  is  one,  as  there  is  but  one 
truth,  and  it  is  only  truth  that  makes  us  free,  so  He  can  have 
intended  but  one  Church — for  the  Church  rests  on  Him,  and  her 
mission  is  simply  to  announce  Him  and  His  work.  The  human 
mind,  on  the  other  hand,  is  everywhere  the  same,  created  for  the 
truth.  Its  essential  spiritual  wants,  no  matter  what  change  of  time 
or  place,  no  matter  what  degree  of  culture  and  education,  remain 
always  the  same.  AVe  all  have  sinned.  We  all  stand  in  need  of 
grace ;  and  the  faith  of  the  simplest-minded  toiler  is  the  faith  of  the 
sublimest  genius,  even  were  he  to  possess  tlie  concentrated  learning 
of  all  past  generations.  Thus,  the  oneness  of  the  mind,  as  well  as 
the    oneness  of  truth,  justifies    the    notion  of  the    one    true  Church. 

But,  just  because  she  is  the  one  true  Church,  and  the  deposi- 
tory of  the  fulness  of  truth,  she  is  the  object  of  the  attacks  of 
those  who  reject  the  truth  or  have  preserved  but  its  fragments. 
Those  who  make  everything  of  fiiith,  and  nothing  of  reason,  accuse 
her  of  rationalism,  because  she  grants  reason  its  rights  in  connec- 
tion with  faith ;  while  others  declare  her  the  enemy  of  reason, 
because  she  holds  to  the  supernatural  character  of  mysteries  which 
are  above  reason.  She  refuses  not  her  approval  to  the  interior 
life,  to  peaceful  contemplation,  and  she  is  accused  of  favorin.g 
fanaticism,  mysticism  and  laziness.  She  lays  down  for  the  guidance 
of  the  Christian  life  laws,  rules  and  fixed  principles,  and  she  is 
therefore  accused  by  others  of  degenerating  into  outward  and  empty 
routine,  or  a  dead  formalism.  She  strives  to  secure  Christian 
education  for  her  children,  and  she  is  branded  as  a  foe  to  liberty 
and  the  State.  She  exercises  her  well-established  rights  in  the 
appointment  of  her  ministers  and  the  care  of  her  faithful  people, 
and   she   is   driven   into    exile   as   thwarting  the  secular   idea   and  as 


TEE  UNITY  OF  TEE  CEURCE.  69 

dangerous  to  the  government.  She  suffers  not  Christ  and  His  law 
to  be  the  sport  of  a  tyrant's  caprice,  of  passing  opinions,  of  intoler- 
ant passions ;  that  is  enough  for  her  to  be  assailed  and  stricken 
down  as  obstinate,  and  not  knowing  how  to  conform  to  the  spirit 
of  the  age.  She  gives  the  greatest  sinner  pardon  if  he  repents, 
and  she  is  reproached  with  laxity.  Knowing  she  is  Catholic,  and 
therefore  striving  to  embrace  the  world  and  penetrate  into  every 
condition  of  human  life — it  being  her  mission,  as  the  salt  of  the 
earth,  to  preserve  all  from  decay — she  is  set  down  as  meddlesome 
and  domineering.  On  the  other  hand,  as  she  continues  the  preach- 
ing of  the  Apostles,  and  says :  "  Fear  God  and  honor  the  king." 
Obey  your  rulers.  Be  true  to  your  allegiance.  Support  lawful 
authority  as  the  expression  of  the  authority  of  God.  As  she  con- 
demns violence  and  the  violation  of  rights,  she  is  accused  of 
sycophancy.  When  she  admits  development  and  progress,  the  Greek 
schism  charges  that  she  is  destroying  the  foundations  of  faith ; 
and  when  she  guards  the  foundations  of  faith  against  the  count- 
less assaults  of  modern  error,  at  once  goes  up  the  cry  of  fossilism 
and  stagnation.  What  do  these  contradictory  charges  prove? 
Nothing,  unless  that  the  Church  is  above  all  contradictions,  and 
is    the    living    exponent    of  the   one    living    truth. 

And  so,  through  unity,  no  matter  what  the  obstacles,  ever 
goes  on  the  divine  action  of  the  Church.  However  limited  her 
domain,  the  duty  of  the  Church  as  the  depository  of  revealed 
faith  is  ever  the  same.  Need  we  wonder,  then,  that  we  find  the 
same  faith  shared  by  the  rich  and  the  poor,  the  learned  and  the 
ignorant,  the  king  and  the  peasant?  Need  we  wonder  that  we 
find  it  the  same  in  the  days  of  persecution,  in  the  days  of  tol- 
eration, in  the  days  of  security  and  peace  ?  The  same  fountains 
of  grace  are  flowing  for  all ;  everywhere  the  same  waters  of  bap- 
tism, the  same  rite  of  confirmation,  the  same  words  of  absolu- 
tion, the  same  bread  of  life,  the  same  nuptial  blessing,  the  same 
unction  for  the  dying,  the  same  requiem  for  the  dead.  The 
world  over  the  same  Supreme  Pastor  is  known  and  revered.  Let 
sorrows  overwhelm  him  as  to-day;  lot  him  be  robbed  of  his 
rights,  and  deprived  of  his  freedom,  and  calamities  fidl  on  the 
Church  ;  the  same  loving  obedience  is  paid  him  as  in  the  palmi- 
est days  of  the  papacy ;  the  same  loving  prayers  go  up  for  him 
even   with    deeper    fervor   from    all    parts    of    the    earth.     For    this 


70  SERMONS  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

unity  of  the  head  with  the  members  is  maintained  under  every 
condition,  as  Christ  is  one  with  the  Church.  We  are  one  here 
below  dearly  beloved,  as  we  hope  to  be  one  through  eternity.  How 
sweet  the  union,  too,  with  the  faithful  who  have  gone  before  us. 
They  have  made  their  pilgrimage ;  they  rest  in  the  Lord ;  but 
even  beyond  the  tomb  they  are  sharers  in  our  prayers.  Are  we 
not  united  with  them  in  the  communion  of  saints?  Oh,  indeed, 
how  precious  it  is  for  brethren  to  dwell  together  in  unity,  not 
merely  in  the  unity  of  natural  affection,  but  in  the  supernatural 
unity  of  faith  and  communion.  And  why  should  we  grow  weary 
in  our  prayers  to  the  one  eternal  God  that  the  days  of  religious 
discord  and  dissension  may  be  shortened ;  that  the  spirit  of  union 
and  peace  may  overshadow  the  erring,  and  with  sweet  attraction 
win  them  from  wanderings  to  the  one  true  fold  of  Jesus  Christ. 
Pray,  dear  brethren,  for  this  happy  consummation,  especially  now 
during  this  period  of  prayer  and  labor  for  the  interests  of  God's 
Church  in  this  land.  With  earnestness  pour  out  your  supplica- 
tions that  the  work  of  this  holy  council  may  be  efficacious,  not 
only  in  keeping  those  within  the  Church  from  going  astray,  but 
in  bringing  back  those  who  are  wandering.  Think  of  the  solicitude 
of  Jesus  for  souls ;  think  of  His  touching  prayer  for  unity  on 
the  very  night  when  one  of  His  Apostles  went  out  and  betrayed 
Him ;  and  join  with  Him  now  in  His  pleadings  to  His  eternal 
Father :  "  Holy  Father,  keep  them  in  Thy  name  whom  Thou 
hast  given  Me,  that  they  may  be  one  as  We  also  are  one.  And 
not  for  them  only  do  I  pray,  but  for  them  also  who  through 
their  word  shall  believe  in  Me ;  that  they  all  may  be  one  as 
Thou,  Father,  art  in  Me  and  I  in  Thee ;  that  they  also  may  be  one 
in  Us,  that  the  world  may  believe  that  Thou  hast  sent  Me; 
and  the  glory  which  Thou  hast  given  Me  I  have  given  to  them 
that  they  may  be  oue,  as  We  also  are  one." 


%\lt  ^Hmm  to  i^^  ^t^ilmi  ft^lt 


5ERM0I  OF  RiaHT  REY.  W.   H.   GROSS,  D.D. 

BISHOP   CY  SAYAHKAH,    GA. 


THIS  is  a  very  grave  and  important  question,  because  there  are 
about  eight  millions  of  colored  people  living  in  our  midst.  There 
is  hardly  a  town  in  the  United  States  in  which  colored  people  are 
not  more  or  less  numerous.  In  some  States  and  in  some  coun- 
ties   and    towns    they    are    in    a    majority    over    the    whites. 

We  know  the  history  of  this  people.  In  their  native  country, 
Africa,  they  were  sunken  from  time  immemorial  in  barbarism ;  and 
their  religion,  Fetichism, .  was  the  most  depraved  that  the  world  has 
ever  known.  Africa  has  done  great  things  for  religion,  as  evidenced 
in  Egypt,  in  the  great  monks  of  the  desert — Anthony,  Anthanasius, 
Cyril,  Cyprian  of  Carthage,  and  others.  Africa  produced  one  of  the 
greatest  doctors  of  the  Church  in  the  person  of  St.  Augustine,  of  Hippo. 
But  our  colored  people  came  from  that  part  of  Africa  where  the  light 
of  Christianity  has  never  penetrated.  Here  their  condition  was 
improved,  though  they  were  in  a  state  of  slavery.  After  two  cen- 
turies of  bondage  they  are  suddenly  set  free.  While  slaves  they 
could  exercise  no  political  influence;  they  had  no  equality  with  the 
whites  before  the  law ;  they  Avere  excluded  from  all  professions,  and 
from  a  majority  of  the  trades;  they  were  the  hewers  of  wood  and 
the  carriers  of  water  for  the  M'hites.  Now  they  will  enter  the  pro- 
fessions, and  with  that  wonderful  power  of  the  ballot  select  our 
rulers  and  lawgivers,  and  be  themselves  elected  to  such  trusts. 
Therefore,  in  the  highest  sense  of  the  word,  they  will  wield  an  im- 
portant influence,  socially  and  politically,  on  the  country. 

(71) 


72  SEBMOJS'S  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

"We  must  remember  that  these  eight  millions  of  people  are  con- 
stantly increasing,  as  the  last  census  shows.  Consequently  their 
power  must  increase  for  good  or  bad.  The  question  arises,  "What 
is  to  be  done  with  them  ? "  There  is  only  one  thing  that  will 
do  any  good,  and  that  is  to  elevate  them  morally ;  make  them 
honest  men,  chasto  women,  obedient,  law-abiding  citizens,  having 
the  real  welfare  of  the  State  at  heart.  Morality  is  the  basis  of 
the  true  j^rospcrity  of  every  country.  This  can  come  only  from  the 
pure  faith  that  is  embraced  in  the  Catholic  doctrines  that  civilized  in 
reality  the  barbarous  Goths,  Vandals  and  Huns,  the  forefathers  of 
the  present  enlightened  nationalities  of  Europe  and  America.  We 
know  as  a  fact  that  at  present  the  colored  people  know  very  little 
if  anything  of  these  great  truths  of  holy  faith,  whence  all  morality 
must  grow.  As  a  general  thing,  their  ministers  are  poor  colored 
men,  the  vast  majority  of  them  uneducated,  and  they  only  make  a 
travesty  of  religion — "the  blind  leading  the  blind."  Even  the 
white  ministers  of  Protestantism  are  so  disunited  and  divided  on 
doctrines  and  dogma  that  they  could  not  teach  these  fundamental 
truths  were  they  to  go  among  them,  which,  as  a  general  thing, 
they  do  not,  especially  in  the  South. 

But  besides  dogma  and  doctrine  there  must  be  something  else. 
Man  has  a  fallen  nature,  and  it  is  not  necessary  for  me  to  state 
that  the  poor  colored  people  do  not  stand  very  high  in  the  scale 
of  morality.  The  preaching  of  the  Apostles  in  itself  could  not 
break  the  bond  of  bad  passions  and  save  the  world,  if  they  had  not" 
with  their  "words  God's  grace.  God's  grace  is  absolutely  necessary, 
and  without  it  Ave  can  do  nothing. 

The  Catholic  Church,  in  her  magnificent  system  of  sacraments, 
possesses  the  grand  channels  of  grace  for  the  individual  and  for 
society.  A  cliild  is  sanctified  by  holy  baptism.  Matrimony  is  the 
foundation  of  the  family  and  of  all  Christian  society.  It  is  not  a 
mere  contract  between  man  and  woman,  but  the  great  sacrament 
that  brings  the  man  and  woman  the  grace  to  discharge  properly  the 
many    duties    towards    themselves    and    their    children. 

Consider  the  influence  the  woman  wields  as  wife,  mother,  and  in 
society.  The  Catholic  Church  can  alone  give  to  the  colored  woman 
her  proper  elevation  and  make  her  influence  widespread  for  good. 
By  her  great  doctrines  the  Church  holds  up  the  Virgin  ]\Iary  as  the 
second    Eve,    and    as    the    great    model    of  woman — and    of  woman's 


THE  MISSI02y^S  FOE   TUB  COLORED   PEOPLE.  73 

greatest  prize  and  charm — chastity.  Outside  of  Christianity,  women 
nrc  degraded,  as  can  be  seen  among  the  Turks  and  pagans,  but 
slie  is  elevated  by  Catholicity.  The  influence  of  women  is  but 
slightly  appreciated.  Take  from  the  white  race  her  influence,  and 
there  would  be  a  lapse  into  barbarism. 

Some  sixty  years  ago.  Mother  Seton  began  in  Baltimore  her 
foundation  of  the  Sisters  of  Charity.  The  work,  so  small  in  its 
commencement — a  little  grain  of  mustard  seed — has  become  a 
mighty  tree  whose  branches  already  fill  the  land.  What  services 
the  Sisters  of  Charity  have  rendered  in  educating  the  young,  in 
caring  for  the  sick  and  poor,  is  well  known.  I  am  proud  to 
think  that  Baltimore  has  witnessed  the  founding  of  another  great 
work — the    Oblate    Sisters    of  Providence. 

That  the  Catholic  Church  can  elevate  the  colored  women  is  evi- 
denced by  the  fact,  that  here  in  Baltimore,  exists  this  wonderful 
institution  of  the  Oblate  Sisters  of  Providence,  a  colored  convent 
where  women  make  vows  of  perpetual  virginity  and  rival  their  white 
sisters  by  going  among  their  race  to  educate  the  young,  to  take  in 
the  poor  little  orphan  and  help  the  sick  and  dying.  Thus  is  it  shown 
that  the  colored  woman  can  be  elevated  to  a  place  where  she  can 
bring  blessings  on  her  race  equal  to  the  beneficent  influence  which 
the  white  woman  as  a  wife,  mother,  sister  and  holy  nun  has  con- 
ferred   upon    the  white    race. 

The  great  sacrament  of  confirmation  gives  the  Holy  Ghost  in 
reality  to  the  recipient,  and  fortifies  him,  like  a  soldier,  to  fight  the 
battles  of  life.  We  have  penance,  where  the  soul,  wounded  by  sin 
in  the  turmoil  of  life,  may  regain  health  and  strength.  Above  all, 
Ave  have  that  sacrament  of  the  altar,  where  Jesus  Christ  is  present 
in  reality,  and  to  Him  those  heavenly  burdened  can  have  recourse 
for  help.  We  have  the  high  act  of  religion  possessed  in  the  divine 
sacrifice  of  the  Mass,  wherein  is  represented  the  sacrifice  of  Cal- 
vary. What  streams  of  grace  will  flow  from  this  on  those  who 
devoutly  assist  at  it  the  lives  of  the  saints  can  testify.  Even  for 
poor  man,  when  dying — that  terrible  moment,  the  most  grievous 
and  critical  in  our  existence — we  have  the  sacrament  of  extreme 
unction. 

No  wonder,  therefore,  that  armed  with  this  magnificent  system 
of  dogma  and  sacraments  the  Catholic  Church  has  spread  the  flowers 
of    religion   in   all   the    lands    where    she    has    been    welcomed,    and 


74  S:EIiMON'S  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

our  colored  people  will  not  prove  an  exception  to  the  rule.  It  is 
true  that  so  long  as  slavery  existed  the  Catholic  priest,  as  a  general 
rule,  had  no  opportunity  of  coming  in  contact  with  the  colored 
people.  In  Georgia  and  generally  in  the  slave  States,  the  slavehold- 
ers, -with  a  few  exceptions,  were  Protestants.  But  some  works  hav6 
already  been  started,  and  their  success  is  gratifying  in  the  highest 
degree. 

I  have  spoken  of  the  colored  man  to  show  his  influence  upon 
civil  society,  and  that  it  is  wise  and  patriotic  for  every  citizen  to 
wish  for  his  elevation  to  the  highest  point  of  morality.  I  have 
shown  the  Catholic  Church  can  do  that,  and  has  abundant  means 
for  it.  But  we  Catholics  must  remember  that  the  colored  people 
should  be  dear  to  us  from  an  even  higher  motive.  They  were 
created  by  the  same  God,  are  children  of  the  same  common  father 
und  mother — Adam  and  Eve — and  were  destined  to  see  God  and 
possess  Him  for  all  eternity.  Remember  that  Jesus  Christ  shed 
His  last  drop  of  blood  to  redeem  their  souls,  and  that  they  are, 
therefore,  inconceivably  dear    in    His    eyes. 


lit.  Eev.  ./.  L.  Spalding,  D.D. 


lit.  llev.  T.  F.  llendricken,  D.D. 


111.  net.  John  Home,  D.D. 


lit.  Kev.  J  A.  Walterson,  D.D. 


at.  Ilet.  J.  J.  Kiane,  D.D. 


Ul.  JUv.  John  Tuigg,  D.D. 


fiT*^!, 


M-igeiii 


HI.  Ji'ev.  D.nuis  M.  Hiad/ei/,  D.D. 


St.  Rev.  J  P  Machebeuf  D  D. 


in.  L'ev.  1'.  T.  O'J.'eilly,  D  D. 


^mw${ta  ^iltt^^twrt. 


SERMOI  OF  RIGHT  REY.  J.  L.  SPILDIIG,  D.D., 

EISHOP   OF   PEORIA,    ILL. 


THE  subject  which  I  have  been  asked  to  treat  is  the  higher 
education  of  priests,  which,  I  suppose,  is  the  highest  educa- 
tion of  man,  since  tlie  ideal  of  the  Christian  priest  is  the  most 
exalted,  his  vocation  the  most  sublime,  liis  office  the  most  holy, 
his  duties  the  most  spiritual,  and  his  mission,  whether  we  consider 
its  relation  to  morality  which  is  the  basis  of  individual  and  social 
welfare,  or  to  religion  which  is  the  promise  and  the  secret  of 
immortal  and  godlike  life,  is  the  most  important  and  the  most 
sacred   which    can   be   assigned    to    a    human    being. 

Religion  and  education  like  religion  and  morality  are  nearly 
related.  Pure  religion,  indeed,  is  more  than  right  education,  and 
yet  it  may  be  said  with  truth  that  it  is  but  a  part  of  the  best 
education,  for  it  co-operates  with  other  forces,  with  climate,  cus- 
tom, social  conditions  and  political  institutions,  to  develop  and 
fashion  the  complete  man,  and  the  special  instruction  of  teachers, 
which  is  the  narrow  meaning  of  the  word,  is  modified,  and  to  a 
great  extent  controlled,  by  these  powers  which  work  unseen,  and 
are  the  vital  agents  that  make  possible  all  conscious  educational 
efforts. 

The  faith  we  hold,  the  laws  we  obey,  the  domestic  and  social 
■customs  to  which  our  thoughts  and  loves  are  harmonized,  the  cli- 
mate we  live  in,  mould  our  characters  and  give  to  our  souls  a 
deeper  and  more  lasting  tinge  tlian  any  school,  though  it  were 
the    best. 

My  subject,  however,  does  not  demand  that  I  consider  these 
general   and   silent   agencies    by   which    life  is    influenced;    but   leads 

(75) 


76  SUEMONS  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

me  to  the  discussion  of  the  methods  by  which  man,  with  con- 
scious purpose,  seeks  to  form  and  instruct  liis  fellow-man  j  to  the 
discussion  of  the  special  education  which  brings  art  to  the  aid  of 
nature  and  becomes  the  auxiliary  and  guide  of  the  forces  which 
contribute    to    the    development    of  our    being. 

In  this  age  when  all  wlio  think  at  all  turn  their  thoughts  to 
questions  of  education,  it  is  needless  to  call  attention  to  the  inter- 
est of  the  subject,  which,  like  hope,  is  immortal  and  fresh  as  the 
innocent    face    of  laughing    childhood. 

Is  not  tlie  school  for  all  men  a  shrine  to  which  their  pilgrim 
thoughts  return  to  catch  again  the  glow  of  gladness  of  a  world 
wherein  they  live  by  faith  and  hope  and  love,  when  round  the 
morning  sun  of  life  the  golden  purple  clouds  were  hanging  and 
earth  lay  hidden  in  mist  beneath  which  the  soul  created  a  new 
paradise?  To  the  opening  mind  all  things  are  young  and  fair, 
and  to  remember  the  delight  that  accompanied  the  gradual  dawn 
of  knowledge  upon  our  mental  vision,  sv/cet  and  beautiful  as  the 
upglowing  of  day  from  the  bosom  of  night,  is  to  be  forever  thank- 
ful for  the  gracious  power  of  education.  And  is  there  not  in 
all  hearts  a  deep  and  abiding  yearning  for  great  and  noble 
men,  and  therefore  an  imperishable  interest  in  the  power  by 
which  they  are  moulded?  When  fathers  and  mothers  look  upon 
the  fair  blossoming  children,  that  cling  to  them  as  the  vine 
wraps  its  tendrils  round  the  spreading  bough,  and  when  their 
great  love  fills  them  with  ineffable  longing  to  shield  these  tender 
souls  from  the  blighting  blasts  of  a  cold  and  stormy  world,  and 
little  by  little  to  prepare  them  to  stand  alone  and  breast  the 
gales  of  fortune,  do  they  not  instinctively  put  their  trust  in  the 
power    of  education? 

When  at  the  beginning  of  the  present  century  Germany  lay 
prostrate  at  the  feet  of  Napoleon,  the  wise  and  patriotic  among 
her  children  yielded  not  to  despondency,  but  turned  with  confi- 
dence to  truer  methods  and  systems  of  education,  and  assiduous 
teaching   and   patient    waiting    finally    brought   them    to    Sedan. 

When  in  the  sixteenth  century  heresy  and  schism  seemed  near 
to  final  victory  over  the  Church,  Pope  Julius  III  declared  that 
the  evils  and  abuses  of  the  times  were  the  outgrowth  of  the 
shameful  ignorance  of  the  clergy,  and  that  the  chief  hope  of  the 
dawning    of  a    brighter    day   lay    in   general    and    thorough    ccclesias- 


UNIVERSITY  EDUCATION.  77 

tical  education.  And  the  Catholic  leaders,  who  finally  turned  back 
the  advancing  power  of  Protestantism,  re-established  the  Church 
in  half  the  countries  in  which  it  had  been  overthown,  and  con- 
verted more  souls  in  America  and  Asia  than  had  been  lost  in 
Europe,  belonged  to  the  greatest  educational  body  the  world  has 
ever  seen.  What  is  history  but  examples  of  success  through 
knowledge  and  righteousness  and  of  failure  through  lack  of  under- 
standing   and    of   virtue  ? 

Wherein  lies  the  superiority  of  civilized  races  over  the  barba- 
rians if  not  in  their  greater  knowledge  and  superior  strength  of 
character?  And  what  but  education  has  placed  in  the  hands  of 
man  the  thousand  natural  forces,  which  he  holds  as  a  charioteer 
his  well-reined  steeds,  bidding  the  winds  to  carry  him  to  distant 
lands,  making  steam  his  tireless  ever-ready  slave,  and  commanding 
the  lightning  to  speak  his  words  to  the  ends  of  the  earth? 
What  else  than  this  has  taught  him  to  map  the  boundless  heavens, 
to  read  the  footprints  of  God  in  the  crust  of  the  earth  ages 
before  human  beings  lived,  to  measure  the  speed  of  light,  to 
weigh  the  imperceptible  atom,  to  split  up  all  natural  compounds, 
to  create  innumerable  artificial  products  with  which  he  transforms 
the  world  and  with  a  grain  of  powder  marches  like  a  conquering 
god    around    the    globe  ? 

What  converts  the  meaningless  babbling  of  the  child  into  the 
stately  march  of  oratoric  phrase  or  the  rythmic  flow  of  poetic 
language  ?  What  has  developed  the  rude  stone  and  bronze  imple- 
ments of  savage  and  barbarous  hordes  into  the  miraculous 
machinery  which  we  use  ?  By  what  power  has  man  been  taught 
to  carve  the  shapeless  rock  into  an  image  of  ideal  beauty,  or 
with  it  to  build  his  thought  into  a  temple  of  God,  where  the 
soul    instinctively   prostrates    itself  in    adoration  ? 

Is  not  all  this,  together  with  whatever  else  is  excellent  in 
human  works,  the  result  of  education,  which  gives  to  man  a  second 
nature  with  more  admirable  endowments  ?  And  is  not  religion 
itself  a  kind  of  celestial  education  which  trains  the  soul  to  god- 
like   life? 

No  progress  in  things  divine  or  human  is  made  by  man  except 
through  eiFort,  and  effort  is  the  power  and  the  law  of  education. 
The  maxim  of  the  spiritual  writers  that  not  to  struggle  upward 
and    onward    is    to    be    drawn   downward,    applies    to    every    phase 


78  SERMONS  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

of  our  life.  AVhence  do  we  derive  strength  of  soul  but  from 
the  uplifting  of  the  mind  and  heart  to  God  which  we  call  prayer? 
To  pray  is  to  think,  to  attend,  to  hold  the  mind  lovingly  to  its 
object,  and  this  is  what  we  do  when  we  study.  Hence  prayer, 
which  is  the  voice  of  religion,  is  a  part  of  education,  nay,  it& 
very  soul,  breathing  on  all  the  chords  of  life,  till  their  thousand 
dissonances  meet  in  rythmic  harmony.  What  is  the  pulpit  but  the 
holiest    teacher's    chair    that   has    been   placed    upon    the    earth  ? 

And  as  the  presence  of  a  noble  character  is  a  more  potent 
influence  than  words,  so  sacramental  communion  with  Christ  is 
man's  chief  school  of  faith,  of  hope  and  love.  There  are  worthy 
persons  who  turn,  as  from  an  unholy  thought,  from  the  emphatic 
announcement  of  the  need  of  the  best  human  qualities  for  the 
proper  defence  of  the  cause  of  God  in  the  world.  Such  speech 
seems  to  them  to  be  vain  and  unreal,  for  God  is  all  in  all,  and  man 
is  nothing.  But  in  our  day  it  is  easier  to  go  astray  in  the  direction 
of  self-annihilation  than  in  that  of  self-assertion ;  since  the  com- 
mon tendency  now  of  all  false  philosophies  is  pantheistic,  and  issues 
in  unconscious  contempt  of  individual  life.  If  man  is  but  a  bubble 
merging  forth  and  reabsorbed,  without  past  or  future,  then,  indeed, 
both  he  and  Avhat  he  seems  to  do  sink  into  the  eternal  flow  of 
matter  and  are  undeserving  of  a  thought.  This  certainly  is  not 
the  Christian  view,  to  which  man  is  revealed  as  a  lesser  god  and 
co-worker  with  the  Eternal,  whose  thoughts  can  reach  the  Infinite 
and  whose  will  can  oppose  that  of  the  Omnipotent.  In  Christ, 
God  co-operates  with  man  for  the  salvation  of  the  world,  and  in 
the  Church  man  co-operates  with  God  in  the  same  end.  The  more 
complete  the  man,  the  more  fit  is  he  to  work  with  God.  Even 
bodily  disfigurement  is  looked  upon  as  an  obstacle ;  how  much  more 
then  shall  lack  of  intelligence  and  want  of  heart  render  us  un- 
worthy of  the  divine  office?  I  certainly  shall  never  deny  that 
love  which  the  Apostle  exalts  above  faith  and  hope,  is  higher  alsa 
than  knowledge.  The  light  of  the  mind  is  as  that  of  the  moon — 
fair  and  soft  and  soothing,  without  heat,  without  the  power  to 
call  forth  and  nourish  life ;  but  the  light  of  the  soul,  which  is 
love,  is  the  sunlight,  whose  kiss,  like  a  word  of  God,  makes 
the  dead  to  live  and  clothes  the  world  in  strength  and  beauty. 
Character  is  more  than  intellect,  love  is  more  than  knowledge, 
religion   is    more   than   morality,    and    a   great  heart   brings  us  closer 


UNIVERSITY  EDUCATION.  79 

to  God,  nearer  to  all  goodness  than  a  bright  mind.  Education 
is  essentially  moral,  and  the  intellectual  qualities  themselves,  whicli 
we  seek  to  develop,  derive  their  chief  efficacy  from  underlying^ 
ethical  qualities  upon  wliich  they  rest  and  from  which  they  receive 
their  energy  and  the  power  of  self-control.  Inequality  of  will  is 
the  great  cause  of  inequality  of  mind,  and  the  will  is  strength- 
ened by  the  practice  of  virtue  as  the  body  by  food  and  exercise. 
If  this  is  a  general  truth,  with  what  special  force  must  it  not 
apply  to  the  ministers  of  a  religion,  the  paramount  and  ceaseless  aim 
of  which  is  to  make  men  holy,  so  that  at  times  it  has  almost 
seemed  as  though  the  Church  were  indifferent  as  to  whether  they 
are  learned  or  beautiful  or  strong?  She  pronounces  no  man  a 
doctor,  unless  he  be  also  a  saint,  and  when  I  insist  that  the 
priest  shall  possess  the  best  mental  culture  of  his  age,  that,  with- 
out this,  he  fights  with  broken  weapons,  speaks  with  harsh  voice 
a  language  men  will  neither  hear  nor  understand,  teaches  truths 
which,  having  not  the  freshness  and  the  glow  of  truth,  neither 
kindle  the  heart  nor  fire  the  imagination,  I  do  not  forget  that 
without  the  moral  earnestness  which  is  born  of  faith  and  purity 
of  life,  mere  cultivation  of  mind  will  not  give  him  power  to 
unseal  the  fountains  of  living  waters  which  refresh  tiie  garden  of 
God.  The  universal  harmony  is  felt  by  a  pure  heart  better  than 
it  can  be  perceived  by  a  keen  intellect.  To  a  sinless  soul  the 
darker  side  even  of  life  and  nature  is  not  wholly  dark,  and  the 
mental  difficulties  which  the  existence  of  evil  involves,  in  no  way 
weaken  the  consciousness  of  the  essential  goodness  that  lies  at  the 
heart  of  all  things.  In  the  religious,  as  in  the  moral  world,  men 
trust  to  what  we  are  rather  than  to  what  we  say,  and  the  teacher  of 
spiritual  truth  is  never  strong,  unless  his  life  and  character  inspire 
a  confidence  which  arguments  alone  do  not  create ;  for  in  questions 
that  reach  beyond  the  sphere  of  sensation,  we  feel  that  insight  is  better 
than  reason,  and  hence  we  instinctively  prefer  the  testimony  of  a 
godlike  soul  to  the  conclusions  of  a  cultivated  mind ;  and  indeed 
our  Blessed  Lord  ever  assumes  that  the  obstacle  to  the  percep- 
tion of  divine  truth  is  moral  and  not  intellectual.  The  pure  of 
heart  see  God :  the  evil-doer  loves  darkness  and  shuns  the  light. 
St.  Paul  goes  even  farther  and  associates  mental  cultivation  with  a 
tendency  directly  opposed  to  religious  faith,  which  is  humble.  ' 
"Knowledge    puffeth    up."     But   the    words    of    the    Apostle   should 


80  SUE3I0NS  OF  TUB  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

not  be  stretched  beyond  his  purpose,  M-hich  is  to  point  to  pride 
as  a  special  danger  of  the  intellectual  as  sensuality  is  a  danger  of 
the  ignorant.  For  man  to  have  aught  is  to  run  a  risk  and  hence 
to  do  as  little  as  possible  is  in  the  thought  of  the  timid  a  mark 
of  prudence.  And  indeed  if  fear  be  nearer  to  wisdom  than  cour- 
age, then  should  "\ve  fear  everything,  for  danger  is  everywhere.  A 
breath  may  sow  the  seed  of  death ;  a  look  may  slay  the  soul.  In 
knowledge,  in  ignorance,  in  strength,  in  weakness,  in  wealth,  in 
poverty,  in  genius,  in  stupidity,  in  company,  in  solitude,  in  inno- 
cence itself  danger  lurks.  But  God  docs  not  abolish  life  that 
danger  may  cease  to  be,  and  they  who  put  their  trust  in  Him 
wdll  not  seek  to  darken  the  mind  lest  knowledge  lead  man  astray, 
but  will  rather  in  a  righteous  cause  make  the  venture  of  all  things, 
as  St.  Ignatius  preferred  the  hope  of  saving  others  to  the 
certainty  of  his  own  salvation.  And  may  we  not  maintain,  since 
we  hold  that  there  is  no  inappeasable  conflict  between  God  and 
nature,  between  the  soul  and  matter,  between  revelation  and  science, 
that  the  .apparent  antagonism  lies  in  our  apprehension  and  not  in 
things  themselves,  and  consequently  that  reconcilement  is  to  bq 
sought  for  through  the  help  of  thoroughly  trained  minds  ?  The 
poet  speaks  the  truth :  "A  little  knowledge  is  a  dangerous  thing." 
They  who  know  but  little  and  imperfectly,  see  but  their  knowl- 
edge, if  so  it  may  be  called,  and  walk  in  innocent  unconsciousness 
of  their  infinite  nescience.  The  narrower  the  range  of  our  mental 
vision,  the  greater  the  obstinacy  witli  which  we  cling  to  our  opin- 
ions ;  and  the  half-educated,  like  the  weak  and  the  incompetent, 
are  often  contentious,  but  wliosoever  is  able  to  do  his  work  does 
it  and  finds  no  time  for  dispute.  He  who  possesses  a  disciplined 
mind,  and  is  fiimiliar  with  the  best  thoughts  that  live  in  the  great 
literatures,  Avill  be  the  last  to  attach  undue  imi)ortance  to  his  own 
thinking.  A  sense  of  decency  and  a  kind  of  holy  shame  will  keep 
him  far  from  angry  and  unprofitable  controversy ;  nor  will  he  mis- 
take a  crotchet  for  a  panacea,  nor  imagine  that  irritation  is  enlighen- 
mcnt.  The  blessings  of  a  cultivated  mind  are  akin  to  those  of 
religion.  They  are  larger  liberty,  wider  life,  purer  delights  and  a 
juster  sense  of  the  relative  values  of  the  means  and  ends  which 
lie  within  our  rcacli.  Knowledge,  like  religion,  leads  us  away  from 
Aviiat  appears  to  what  is,  from  what  passes  to  what  remains,  from 
what   flatters    the    senses  to  that  which   speaks   to    the  soul.    Wisdom 


UNIVERSITY  EDUCATION.  81 

and  religion  converge,  as  love  and  knowledge  meet  in  God ;  and 
to  the  wise  as  to  the  religious  man,  no  great  evil  can  happen. 
Into  prison  they  both  carry  the  sweet  company  of  their  thoughts, 
their  faith  and  hope,  and  are  freer  in  chains  than  the  great  in 
palaces.  In  death  they  are  in  the  midst  of  life,  for  they  see  that 
what  they  know  and  love  is  imperishable,  nor  subject  even  to 
■atomic  disintegration.  He  who  lives  in  the  presence  of  truth  yearns 
not  for  the  company  of  men,  but  loves  retirement  as  a  saint  loves 
solitude ;  and  in  times  like  ours,  when  men  no  longer  choose  the 
desert  for  a  dwelling-place,  the  passionate  desire  of  intellectual  ex- 
•cellence  co-operates  with  religious  faith  to  guard  them  against  dissi- 
pation and  to  lift  them  above  the  spirit  of  the  age.  The  thinker 
is  never  lonely  as  he  who  lives  with  God  is  never  unhappy.  Is 
not  the  love  of  excellence,  which  is  the  scholar's  love,  a  part  of 
"the  love  of  goodness  which  makes  the  saint?  And  are  not  intel- 
lectual delights  akin  to  those  religion  brings?  They  are  pure,  they 
elevate,  they  refine,  [time  only  increases  their  charm,  and  in  the 
Avinter  of  age,  when  the  body  is  but  the  agent  of  pain,  contempla- 
tion still  remains  like  the  light  of  a  higher  world  to  tinge  with 
beauty  the  clouds  that  gather  around  life's  setting.  How  narrow 
.and  monotonous  is  sensation !  how  wide  and  various  is  thought ! 
They  who  live  in  the  senses  are  fettered  and  ill  at  ease ;  they 
Avho  live  in  the  soul  are  free  and  joyful.  And  since  the  priest, 
unless  he  be  a  saint,  must  have,  like  other  men,  some  human  joy, 
and  since  he  dwells  not  in  the  sacred  circle  of  the  love  of  wife 
and  children,  in  which  the  multitudes  find  repose  and  contentment, 
what  solace,  what  refreshment,  in  the  midst  of  cares  and  labors, 
shall  we  offer  him?  If  there  be  aught  for  him,  that  is  not  un- 
worthy or  dangerous,  except  the  pleasures  of  the  mind,  to  me  it 
is  unknown,  and  though  a  well-trained  intellect  should  do  no  more 
than  to  enable  us  to  take  delight  in  pure  and  noble  objects,  it 
would  be  a  chief  help  to  worthy  life.  And  when  the  whole  tend- 
ency of  our  social  existence  is  to  draw  men  out  of  themselves 
and  to  make  them  seek  the  good  of  life  in  what  is  external,  as 
money,  display,  position,  renown,  is  it  not  a  gain,  if  while  we 
■open  their  minds  to  the  charm  of  intellectual  beauty,  we  make 
them  see  that  this  eager  striving  for  Avealth  and  place  is  a  vulgar 
<3hase  ?  And  does  not  the  spirit  of  refinement  in  thought,  in  speech, 
in  manner,  add  worth  and  fairness  to  him  whom  it  inspires,  though 

6 


82  SUBMONS  OF  TUB  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

the   motive  which   preserves    him   from  what  is    low   or  gross   be   nO' 
higher   than    a   fastidious    delicacy  and    self-respect  ? 

To    deny    the    moral    influence    of  intellectual    culture    is    as    great 
an    error    as    to    affirm    that    it    alone    is    a    sufficient    safeguard    of 
morality.      Its     tendency     unquestionably    is    to     make     men    gentle, 
amiable,    fair-minded,    truthful,    benevolent,    modest,    sober.     It    curbs 
ambition,    teaches    resignation ;     chastens    the    imagination     and     miti- 
gates   ferocity ;    dissuades    from    duelling    because    it    is    barbarious, 
and    from   war    because    it   is    cruel ;    and   from    persecution    because 
it   trusts    in    the    prevalence    of  reason.     It    seeks    to    fit    the    mind 
and   the    character   to    the    world,    to    all    possible     circumstances,    so- 
that     whatever     happens     we    remain     ourselves — calm,     clear-seeing,, 
able   to    do    and   to    suffiir.     At   great    heights,    or    in     the    presence 
of  irresistible   force,    as    of  a    mighty  waterfall,   we    grow   dizzy    and 
in    the    same   way,    in    the    midst    of    multitudes,    in     the    eagerness 
of    strife,    in    the   whirlwind    of    passion,    equipoise    is    lost    and    we 
cease    to    be    ourselves,    to    become    part    of    an    aggregate    of    forces 
that  hurry  us  on  whither  we  know  not.     To  be  able  to  stand  in  the- 
presence  of  such  power,  and  to  feel  its  influence  and  yet  not  to  lose 
self-possession,  is   to   be   strong,  is,   on  proper  occasion,   to   be   great ;. 
and   the    aim    of    the    best    education    is    to    teach    us    the    secret    and 
the    method    of  this    complete    self-control ;    and    in    so    far    it   is   not 
only   moral,    but   also    religious ;    though    religion    walks    in    a    more 
royal   road,  and    bids    us    love    God  and  trust   so  absolutely  in  Him 
that    life    and    death    become    equal,    and    all     the    ways     and    work- 
ings   of  men    as    the    storm    to    one    who    on    lofty    mountain    peak,, 
amid    the    blue    heavens,    with    the    sunlight    around    him    and    the 
quiet   breathing    of  the   winds,    sees    far    below  as    in    another  world, 
the   black    clouds    and   lurid    lightning    flash    and    hear.s    the    roll    of 
distant   thunder. 

It  is  far  from  my  thought,  it  is  needless  to  say,  that  mental 
cultivation  can  be  made  to  take  the  place  or  do  the  work  of 
religion  even  in  the  case  of  the  very  few  for  whom  the  best 
discipline  of  mind  is  possible.  My  aim  is  simply  to  show  that 
the  type  of  character  which  it  tends  to  create  is  not  necessarily 
at  variance  with  religious  principle  and  life,  as  is,  for  instance, 
that  of  the  mere  worldling,  but  that  it  conspires  with  Christian 
faith  to  produce,  if  not  the  same,  at  least  similar  virtues,  though 
its    ethical    influence    is    comparatively    superficial,    and    the    moral 


UNIVERSITY  EDUCATION.  83 

qualities  which  it  produces  lack  consistency  and  the  power  to 
withstand  the  fire  of  the  passions.  It  is  enough  for  my  purpose 
to  point  out  that  if  intellectualism  is  often  the  foe  of  religious 
truth,  there  is  no  good  reason  why  it  should  not  also  be  its  ally. 
No  excellence,  as  I  conceive,  of  whatever  kind,  is  rejected  by 
Catholic  teaching,  and  the  perfection  of  the  mind  is  not  less 
divine  than  the  perfection  of  the  heart.  It  is  good  to  know  as 
it  is  good  to  hope,  to  believe,  to  love.  A  cultivated  intellect, 
an  open  mind,  a  rich  imagination,  with  correctness  of  thought, 
flexibility  of  view,  and  eloquent  expression,  are  among  the  noblest 
endowments  of  man,  and  though  they  should  serve  no  other  pur- 
pose than  to  embellish  life,  to  make  it  fairer  and  freer,  they 
would  nevertheless  be  ^possessions  without  price,  for  the  most  nobly 
useful  things  are  those  which  make  life  good  and  beautiful.  Like 
virtue  they  are  their  own  reward,  and  like  mercy  they  bear  a 
double  blessing.  It  is  the  fashion  with  many  to  affect  contempt 
for  men  of  superior  culture,  because  they  look  upon  education  as 
simply  a  means  to  tangible  ends,  and  think  knowledge  valuable 
only  Avhen  it  can  be  made  to  serve  practical  purposes.  This  is 
a  narrow  and  false  view  ;  for  all  men  need  the  noble  and  the 
beautiful,  and  he  who  lives  without  an  ideal  is  hardly  a  man. 
Our  material  wants  are  not  the  most  real,  for  being  the  most 
sensible  and  pressing,  and  they  who  create  or  j)reserve  for  us 
models  of  spiritual  and  intellectual  excellence  are  our  greatest 
benefactors.  "Which  were  the  greater  loss  for  England,  to  be  with- 
out Wellington  and  Nelson,  or  to  be  without  Shakespeare  and 
Milton  ?  Whatever  the  answer  be,  in  the  one  case  England  would 
suffer,  in  the  other  the  whole  world  would  feel  the  loss.  Though 
a  thoroughly  trained  intellect  is  less  worthy  of  admiration  than  a 
noble  character,  its  power  is  immeasurably  greater ;  for,  example 
can  influence  but  a  few  and  for  a  short  time,  but  when  a  truth 
or  a  sentiment  has  once  found  its  best  expression,  it  becomes  a 
part  of  literature  and,  like  a  proverb,  is  current  for  evermore, 
and  so  the  kings  of  thought  become  immortal  rulers,  and  without 
their  help  the  godlike  deeds  of  saints  and  heroes  would  be  buried 
in  oblivion.  "  Words  pass,"  said  Napoleon,  "  but  deeds  remain." 
The  man  of  action  exaggerates  the  worth  of  action,  but  the  philoso- 
pher knows  that  to  act  is  easy,  to  think,  difficult;  and  that  great 
deeds    spring   from    great    thoughts.     There    are    words     tJiat     never 


84  SFBIIOI^S  OF  THE  THIRD   PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

grow  silent,  there  are  words  that  have  changed  the  face  of  the 
earth,  and  the  warrior's  wreath  of  victory  is  entwined  by  the 
muse's  hand.  The  power  of  Athens  is  gone,  h-er  temples  are  in 
ruins,  the  Acropolis  is  discrowned,  and  from  Mars'  Hill  no  voice 
thunders  now,  but  the  words  of  Socrates,  the  great  deliverer  of 
the  mind  and  the  father  of  intellectual  culture,  still  breathe  in  the 
thoughts  of  every  cultivated  man  on  earth.  The  glory  of  Jerusa- 
lem has  departed,  the  broken  stones  of  Solomon's  Temple  lie  hard 
by  the  graves  that  line  the  brook  of  Kedron,  and  from  the 
minaret  of  Mount  Sion,  the  misbeliever's  melancholy  call  sounds 
like  a  wail  over  a  lost  world,  but  the  songs  of  David  still  rise 
from  the  whole  earth  in  heavenly  concert,  upbearing  to  the  throne 
of  God  the  faith  and  hope  and  love  of  countless  millions.  And 
is  not  the  Blessed  Saviour  the  Eternal  Word  ?  And  is  not  the 
Bible  God's  Word?  And  is  not  the  Gospel  the  Word,  M'hich  like 
an  electric  thrill  runs  to  the  ends  of  the  world?  ''Currit  verbuin" 
says  St.  Paul,  "  man  lives  not  on  bread  alone,  but  on  every  word 
that  cometh  from  the  mouth  of  God."  Nay,  there  is  life  in  all 
the  true  and  noble  thoughts  that  have  blossomed  in  the  mind  of 
genius    and    filled    the    earth    with    fragrance*  and    with    fruit. 

Shall  I  be  told  that  the  intellectual  cultivation  and  discipline, 
which  gives  to  man  control  of  his  knowledge,  the  perfect  use  of 
his  faculties,  justness  of  perception  with  ease  and  grace  of  expres- 
sion, cannot  bring  serviceable  advocacy  or  defence  to  the  cause  of 
divine  truth  ?  What  does  truth  need  but  to  be  known  ?  And  since 
to  reach  the  mind  and  heart  of  man  it  must  be  clothed  in  words, 
what  is  so  necessary  to  it  as  the  garb  and  vesture,  the  form  and 
color,  the  warmth  and  life,  which  shall  so  mark  it  that  to  be 
loved  it  need  but  be  seen?  And  who  shall  so  clothe  it  if  not 
he  who  has  the  freest,  the  most  flexible,  the  clearest,  the  best  dis- 
ciplined mind?  In  the  apostolic  age,  when  the  manifestations  of 
miraculous  power  accompanied  the  announcement  of  Christian  doc- 
trine, the  lack  of  persuasive  words  of  human  eloquence  was  not 
felt.  Let  him  who  can  drink  poison  and  touch  scorpions,  and  not 
suffer  harm,  despise  the  aid  of  learning;  but  for  us  who  are  not 
so  assisted,  no  cultivation  of  mind  or  preparation  of  heart  can  be 
too  great,  and  to  appear  in  the  garb  of  a  savage  were  less  un- 
seemly than  to  speak  the  holiest  and  the  highest  truths  in  the 
barbarous    tongue    of  ignorance. 


UNIVERSITY  EDUCATION.  85 

Our  way  here  cannot  be  doubtful.  Either  we  must  hold  with 
certain  peculiar  heretics  that  learning  is  a  hindrance  to  the  effica- 
cious teachings  of  religious  truths,  or  denying  this,  Ave  must  hold, 
since  mental  culture  is  serviceable,  that  the    best   is  most  serviceable. 

May  we  not  take  this  for  a  principle — to  believe  that  God  does 
everything,  and  then  to  act  as  though  He  left  everything  for  us 
to  do  ?  Or  this :  since  grace  supposes  nature,  the  growth  and 
strength  of  the  Church  is  not  wholly  independent  of  the  natural 
endowments    of  her   ministers  ? 

As  a  matter  of  fact  we  Catholics  are  constantly  speaking  and 
acting  upon  principles  of  this  kind.  We  maintain  that  without  a 
proper  education  our  children  must  lose  the  faith,  and  that  without 
careful  moral  and  mental  training  no  man  is  likely  to  become  a 
good  priest,  and  all  that  I  further  insist  upon  is  that  if  he  is  to 
do  the  best  work,  he  must  have  the  best  intellectual  discipline.  In 
an  intellectual  age,  at  least,  he  cannot  be  the  worthy  minister  of 
worship  unless  he  is  also  the  accomplished  teacher  of  truth.  In 
vain  shall  we  clothe  him  in  rich  symbolic  vestments,  place  him  in 
majestic  temples,  before  marble  altars,  in  the  midst  of  solemn  music, 
in  the  dim  sober -tinted  light,  w^ith  the  great  and  noble  looking  out 
upon  him,  as  from  a  spirit  world — in  vain  shall  all  this  be  if 
when  he  himself  speaks,  his  words  are  felt  to  be  but  the  echo  of 
a  coarse  and  empty  mind.  And  hence  our  enemies  would  gladly 
leave  us  to  the  poetry  of  our  worship,  would  even  enter  our 
churches  to  be  comforted,  to  be  soothed,  to  seek  the  elevation  and 
enlargement  of  thought  and  sentiment  which  comes  upon  us  in  the 
presence  of  what  is  vast,  mysterious  and  sublime,  if  we  would  but 
confess  that  it  is  only  poetry,  good  and  beautiful  only  as  art  is 
good  and  beautiful.  The  spirit  of  the  time,  in  fact,  it  seems  to  me, 
is  more  and  more  disposed  to  grant  us  everything  except  the  pos- 
session of  intellectual  truth.  That  the  Catholic  Church  is  a  mar- 
velous power ;  that  her  triumphs  have  been  so  enduring  and  so 
unexpected  that  only  the  foolish  or  the  ignorant  Avill  predict  her 
downfall ;  that  she  overcame  paganism ;  that  she  saved  Christianity 
when  Rome  fell ;  that  she  restrained  the  ferocity  of  the  barbarians, 
protected  the  weak,  encouraged  labor,  preserved  the  classics,  main- 
tained the  unity  and  sanctity  of  marriage,  defended  the  purity  and 
dignity  of  woman,  espoused  the  cause  of  the  oppressed,  and  in  a 
lawless    and   ignorant    age    proclaimed    the    supremacy    of    right    and 


86  SUEMONS  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

the  worth  of  learning — that  to  these  signal  services  must  be  added 
her  poM'er  to  give  ease  and  pleasantness  to  the  social  relations  of 
men,  keeping  them  equally  remote  from  puritan  severity  and  pagan 
license;  her  eye  for  beauty  and  grace,  -^vhich  has  made  her  the 
foster-mother  of  all  the  arts ;  her  love  of  the  excellent  and  noble, 
mIucIi  has  enabled  her  to  create  types  of  character  that  are  im- 
mortal; her  practical  wisdom,  giving  her  the  secret  of  dealing  with 
every  phase  of  life,  so  that  her  saints  are  doctors,  apostles,  mystics, 
philanthropists,  artists,  poets,  kings,  beggars,  warriors,  peasants,  bar- 
barians, philosophers — all  this,  if  I  mistake  not,  unbelievers  even 
are  more  and  more  Milling  to  concede.  Nor  are  they  slow  to  ex- 
press their  admiration  of  the  strength  and  majesty  of  this  single 
power  amid  Christian  nations,  wdiich  reaches  back  to  the  great 
civilizations  that  have  perished,  which  has  preserved  its  organic 
unity  intact  amid  the  social  revolutions  of  two  thousand  years, 
and  which  is  acknowledged  still  to  be  the  greatest  moral  force  in 
the  world.  But  underlying  all  they  say  and  think  is  the  assump- 
tion that  the  foundations  of  this  noble  structure  are  crumbling,  tliat 
the  world  of  faith  and  thought  in  which  it  was  upbuilt  is  become 
a  desert  where  no  flower  blooms,  no  living  soul  is  found;  that 
the  temple  is  beautiful  only  as  a  ruin  is  beautiful,  where  owls 
hoot  and  bats  flit  to  and  fro.  "There  is  not  a  creed,"  we  are 
told,  "wdiich  is  not  shaken,  nor  an  accredited  dogma  which  is  not 
shown  to  be  questionable;  not  a  received  tradition  whicli  does  not 
threaten   to    dissolve." 

The  conquests  of  the  human  mind  in  the  realms  of  nature 
have  produced  a  world-wide  ferment  of  thought,  an  intellectual 
activity  which  is  without  a  parallel :  they  have  increased  the 
power  of  man  to  an  almost  incredible  degree,  have  given  him  con- 
trol of  the  earth  and  the  seas,  have  placed  within  his  grasp 
undreamed-of  forces,  have  opened  to  his  view  unsuspected  myster- 
ies ;  they  have  placed  him  on  a  new  earth  and  under  new  heavens, 
and  thrown  a  light  never  seen  before  upon  the  history  of  his 
race.  As  a  part  of  this  vast  development  new  questions  have 
risen,  new  theories  have  been  broached,  new  doubts  have  suggested 
themselves ;  and  because  we  liave  changed,  all  else  seems  lo  have 
changed  also.  And  since,  underlying  all  questions,  there  is  found 
a  question  of  religion,  the  discussion  of  religious  and  i)hilosophic 
problems    has  in  our   day   become  a  social   necessity,    and  the  science 


UNIVERSITY  EDUCATION.  87 

of  criticism,  together  with  the  physical  sciences,  has  driven  the 
disputants  upon  new  and  difficult  ground,  where  the  battle  must 
be    fought,   and   where    retreat    is    not   possible. 

As  well  imagine  that  society  will  again  take  on  the  form  of 
feudalism,  as  that  the  human  mind  will  return  to  the  point  of 
view    from    which    our    ancestors    looked    on    nature. 

And  this  world-view  shapes  and  colors  all  our  thinking,  in 
-theology  as  in  other  sciences,  so  that  truths  Avhich  were  latent 
have  come  to  light,  and  principles  Avhich  have  long  been  held 
:find    new    and    wider    application. 

Never  has  the  defence  of  religion  required  so  many  and  excel- 
lent qualities  of  intellect  as  in  the  present  day.  The  early 
apologists  who  contrasted  the  sublimity  and  purity  of  Christian 
faith  with  a  corrupt  paganism  had  not  a  difficult  task.  In  the 
Middle  Ages  the  intellect  of  the  world  was  on  the  side  of  Christ. 
The  controversy  which  sprung  up  Avith  the  advent  of  Protestanism 
-was  Biblical  and  historical,  and  its  criticism  was  superficial.  The 
anti-Christian  schools  of  thought  of  the  eighteenth  century  were 
literary  rather  than  philosophical,  and  the  objections  they  urged 
were  founded  chiefly  upon  political  and  social  considerations.  In 
all  these  discussions  the  territory  in  dispute  was  well  defined  and 
relatively  small.  But  into  what  a  different  world  are  not  we 
thrown !  These  earlier  explorers  sailed  upon  rivers,  whose  banks 
were  lined  by  firm-set  rocky  cliffs,  by  the  overshadowing  boughs 
of  primeval  forests,  with  here  and  there  pleasant  slopes  of  green 
where  they  might  lie  at  rest  amid  the  fragrance  of  wild  flowers ; 
but  from  our  Peter's  bark  we  look  out  upon  the  dark  unfathomed 
seas  toward  an  unknown  world  whose  margin  ever  fades  and 
recedes    as   we    seem  to    draw    near   the    haven   of    our    desire. 

As  in  the  beginning  of  the  twelfth  century,  the  cry,  "  God 
wills  it,"  rang  through  Europe,  and  from  all  her  lands  armies  of 
mailed  knights  sprang  into  battle  array  and  turned  their  faces 
towards  the  Holy  City,  resolved  to  wrench  from  infidel  hands  the 
Sacred  Tomb  of  Christ,  so  now,  from  her  thousand  watch-towers, 
science  sounds  her  clarion  note  with  quite  other  intent,  urging  on 
to  the  attack  of  the  citadel  of  God  in  the  heart  of  man,  renew- 
ing upon  lower  fields  the  war  in  which  immortal  spirits  contended 
with  the  Almighty  "in  dubious  battle  on  the  plains  of  heaven 
and    shook    His   throne."     As    he    jests    at    scars    that    never   felt    a 


88  SERJIO^iS   OF  TUB  THIRD  PLENARY  COUXCIL. 

■wound,  so  here  the  lesser  knowledge  makes  the  bolder  man.  Not 
that  difficulties  should  create  doubts,  or  that  objections  may  not 
be  answered,  or  that  it  is  necessary  to  refute  each  hypothesis 
that  appears  and  fades  like  a  dissolving  view,  or  to  notice  each 
unwarrantable  inference  from  unquestioned  facts,  or  that  it  is  worth 
while  to  address  ourselves  to  minds  whose  nebulous  and  shifting 
opinions  make  it  impossible  that  they  should  receive  correct  im- 
pressions ;  but  the  field  upon  which  attacks  upon  religion  are 
made  is'  so  vast,  the  confusion  of  thought  into  which  new  dis- 
coveries and  speculations  have  thrown  the  minds  of  even  educated 
men  is  so  bewildering,  the  methods  for  the  ascertainment  of  truth 
are  so  tangled  and  misapplied,  the  rushing  on  of  the  multitudes 
to  discuss  problems  which  have  hitherto  been  left  to  philosophers, 
and  which  they  alone  can  ever  rightly  enunciate,  is  so  stupefying, 
that  those  Avho  have  the  clearest  perception  of  the  mental  state 
of  the  modern  world,  and  who  are  able  to  take  the  finest  and  the 
most  comprehensive  view  of  the  religious,  philosophic  and  scien- 
tific controversies  of  the  day,  seem  loth  to  enter  into  a  struggle 
where  the  ground  continually  changes,  and  where  victory  is  only 
partial,  and  but  leads  to  further  contest.  It  is  well  to  remember, 
also,  that  in  the  intellectual  arena  to  attack  is  easier  than  to 
defend,  and  any  shallow,  incoherent  talker  or  Avriter  can  propose 
difficulties  which  the  keenest  thinker  will  find  great  trouble  ta 
explain.  Since  we  and  our  works  fall  to  ruin  and  pass  aM'ay, 
we  seem  instinctively  to  take  the  side  of  those  who  seek  to  un- 
dermine and  overthrow  systems  of  thought  and  belief  which  claim 
to  be  indestructible,  and  the  human  heart  is  half  a  traitor  to  the 
Church  which  declares  that  she  is  indefectible  and  infallible.  Is 
there  not,  indeed,  however  we  account  for  it,  in  all  nature,  a  kind 
of  dread  and  horror  of  the  supernatural,  such  as  one  who  hides 
within  his  bosom  a  secret  of  dark  gu'ilt,  feels  in  the  presence  of 
the  conscience  of  mankind?  And  docs  not  this  make  the  world 
lean  to  the  side  of  those  who  would  eliminate  God  from  nature? 
And  yet,  since  man's  heart  is  the  home  of  contradictions,  is  it 
not  also  true  to  say  that  .he  is  naturally  religious?  His  faith  in 
God  is  as  deep  and  unwavering  as  his  faith  in  the  testimony  of 
the  senses,  and  if  there  are  atheists  there  are  also  men  who  hold 
that  all  things  are  unreal  and  only  appear  to  be ;  tliat  the  M'orld 
is    but   a   myriad-formed,  a  myriad-tinted  idea — the   dream   of  a  sub- 


UNIVERSITY  ED  UCA TION.  89 

stanceless  dreamer.  Not  only  do  wc  believe  in  God  and  in  the 
soul,  but  all  that  we  love,  all  that  we  hope  for,  all  that  gives  to 
life  charm,  dignity  and  saeredness,  is  interpenetrated,  perfumed  and 
illumined  by  this  faith.  If  men  could  be  persuaded  that  the  un- 
conscious is  the  beginning  and  the  end  of  all  things,  what  good 
would  have  been  gained?  The  light  of  heaven  would  fade  away 
and  the  soul's  high  faith  be  made  a  lie ;  the  poor  would  have  no 
friend  and  the  rich  no  heart ;  the  wicked  would  be  without  fear 
and  the  good  without  hope ;  success  would  be  consecrated  and  death 
alone  would  remain  as  the  refuge  of  the  unfortunate.  Even  animal 
indulgence,  in  sinking  out  of  the  moral  order,  would  lose  its 
human  charm.  If  then  in  our  day  there  is  widespread  skepticism, 
a  sort  of  vague  feeling  that  science  is  undermining  religion  and 
that  the  most  sacred  beliefs  are  dissolving,  the  cause  of  this  lies 
not  so  much  in  the  natural  tendencies  of  the  mind  and  heart,  as 
in  social  conditions,  in  passing  phases  of  thought,  in  the  shifting 
of  the  point  of  view  from  which  men  have  hitherto  been  accus- 
tomed to  look  on  nature,  and  the  continuance  and  tlie  progress  of 
doubt,  and  consequently  of  indifference,  is,  to  some  extent  at  least, 
to  be  ascribed  also  to  the  fact,  that  the  most  earnest  believers  in 
God  and  in  Christianity  have  for  now  more  than  a  century,  been 
less  eager  to  acquire  the  best  pliilosophic  and  literary  cultivation 
of  mind,  than  others  who  having  lost  faith  in  the  supernatural 
seek  for  compensation  in  a  wider  and  deeper  knowledge  of  nature 
and  in  the  mental  culture  which  enables  them  to  enjoy  more  keenly 
the  high  thoughts  and  fair  images  which  live  in  literature  and  art. 
As  a  well-trained  intellect,  in  argument  with  the  unskillful,  easily 
makes  the  worse  appear  the  better  cause,  so  in  an  age  or  a  country 
where  the  best  discipline  of  mind  is  found  chiefly  among  those  who 
are  not  Christians,  or  at  least  not  Catholics,  public  opinion  will 
drift  away  from  the  Church,  until  the  view  finally  becomes  general, 
that  whatever  she  may  have  been  in  other  times,  her  day  is  past. 
Kor  will  aught  external,  however  fair  or  glorious,  secure  her  against 
this  danger.  How  often  in  the  history  of  nations  and  of  religions 
is  not  outward  splendor  the  mark  of  inward  decay  ?  When  Home 
was  free,  a  simple  life  sufficed,  but  when  liberty  fled,  marble  palaces 
arose  :  the  monarch  who  built  Versailles  made  the  scaffold  on  which 
French  royalty  perished;  and  so  a  dying  faith,  like    the  setting  sun, 


^0  suBJioys  OF  THE  third  plenary  council. 

may  drape  itself  in  glory.  The  kingdom  of  God  is  within;  there 
is  the  source  of  life  and  strength,  without  which  nor  numbers,  nor 
wealth,  nor  stately  edifices,  nor  solemn  rites  avail.  Nor  can  we  be 
certain  of  men's  love  when  we  cease  to  have  influence  over  their 
thoughts.  The  proper  appeal  is  to  the  heart  through  the  mind, 
and  even  a  mother  loses  half  her  power  when  she  ceases  to  be 
the  intellectual  superior  of  her  children.  How  then  shall  the 
heavenly  Mother  of  the  soul  keep  ]icr  place  in  tlie  world,  if  those 
who  speak  in  her  name,  mar  by  imperfect  and  ignorant  utterance 
the  celestial  harmony  of   lier    doctrines  ? 

Ah !  let  us  learn  to  see  things  as  they  are.  In  face  of  the 
modern  world,  that  which  the  Catholic  priest  most  needs,  after 
virtue,  is  the  best  cultivation  of  mind,  which  issues  in  compre- 
hensiveness of  view,  in  exactness  of  perception,  in  the  clear  dis- 
cernment of  the  relations  of  truths  and  of  the  limitations  of 
scientific  knowledge,  in  fairness  and  flexibility  of  thought,  in  ease 
and  grace  of  expression,  in  candor,  in  reasonableness ;  the  intel- 
lectual culture  which  brings  the  mind  into  form,  gives  it  the 
■control  of  its  faculties,  creates  the  habit  of  attention  and  develops 
firmness  of  grasp.  The  education  of  which  I  speak  is  expansion 
and  discipline  of  mind  rather  than  learning ;  and  its  tendency  is 
not  so  much  to  form  profound  dogmatists,  or  erudite  canonists,  or 
acute  casuists,  as  to  cultivate  a  habit  of  mind,  which,  for  want 
of  a  better  word,  may  be  called  philosophical,  to  enlarge  the  in- 
tellect, to  strengthen  and  supple  its  faculties,  to  enable  it  to  take 
connected  views  of  things  and  their  relations,  and  to  see  clear 
amid  the  mazes  of  human  error  and  through  the  mists  of  human 
passion.  I  speak  of  that  perfection  of  the  intellect,  which,  to  use 
the  words  of  Cardinal  Newman,  "  is  the  clear,  calm,  accurate 
vision  and  comprehension  of  all  things  as  far  as  the  finite  mind 
can  embrace  them,  each  in  its  place  and  with  its  own  character- 
ictics  upon  it.  It  is  almost  prophetic  from  its  knoNvledge  of  his- 
tory ;  it  is  almost  heart-searching  from  its  knowledge  of  human 
nature ;  it  has  almost  supernatural  charity  from  its  freedom  from 
littleness  and  prejudice ;  it  has  almost  the  repose  of  faith  because 
nothing  can  startle  it ;  it  has  almost  the  beauty  and  harmony  of 
heavenly  contemplation,  so  intimate  is  it  with  the  eternal  order 
of  things    and    the  music   of    the   spheres."     This    is,   indeed,    ideal, 


UNIVERSITY  EDUCATIOX.  91 

but   they   who    believe    not   in    ideals    were    not    born    to    know    the 
real    worth    of  things : 

Si:)ite  of   proudest  boast 
Eeason,   best  reason  is  to  imperfect  man, 
An  effort  only  and  a  noble  aim — 
A   cro^vn — an  attribute  of  sovereign   power, 
Still  to  be  courted — never  to  be  won. 

It  is  plain  that  education  of  this  kind  aims  at  something 
-quite  diifereut  from  the  mere  imparting  of  useful  knowledge.  It 
takes  the  view  that  it  is  good  to  know,  even  though  knowledge 
should  not  be  a  means  to  wealth  or  power  or  any  other  common  aim 
of  life.  It  regards  the  mind  as  the  organ  of  truth  and  trains  it 
for  its  own  sake  without  reference  to  the  exercise  of  a  profes- 
sion. Hence  its  distinguishing  characteristic  is  that  it  is  liberal 
-and  not  professional.  It  holds  cultivated  faculties  in  liigher  esteem 
than  learning,  and  it  makes  use  of  knowledge  to  improve  the 
intellect,  rather  than  of  the  intellect  to  acquire  knowledge.  Hence, 
•one  may  be  a  skillful  physician,  a  judicious  lawyer,  a  learned  theo- 
logian, and  yet  be  greatly  lacking  in  mental  culture.  It  is  a 
•common  experience  to  find  that  professional  men  are  apt  to  be 
narrow  and  one-sided.  Their  mind,  like  the  dyer's  hand,  is  sub- 
dued to  what  it  works  in.  They  want  comprehensiveness  of  view, 
flexibility  of  thought,  openness  to  light  and  freedom  of  mental 
play.  They  think  in  grooves,  make  the  rules  of  their  art  the 
measure  of  truth,  and  their  own  methods  of  inquiry  the  only 
valid  laws  of  reasoning.  These  same  defects  may  be  observed  in 
those  who  are  given  exclusively  to  the  study  of  physical  science. 
When  they  sweep  the  heavens  with  the  telescope  and  do  not  find 
Ood,  they  conclude  that  there  is  no  God.  When  the  soul  does 
not  reveal  itself  under  the  microscope,  they  argue  it  does  not 
€xist ;  and  since  there  is  no  thought  without  nervous  movement, 
they    claim    the    brain    thinks. 

Now,  if  it  is  desirable  that  those  who  are  charged  with  the 
teaching  and  defence  of  divine  truth,  should  be  free  from  this 
narrowness  and  one-sidedness,  this  lack  of  openness  to  light  and 
freedom  of  mental  play,  the  education  of  the  priest  must  be  more 
than  a  professional  education ;  and  lie  must  be  sent  to  a  school 
higher  and  broader  than  the  ecclesiastical  seminary,  which  is  simply 
a   training   college    for    the    practical   Avork    of    the    ministry.       The 


92  SUBJIONS  OF  TUB  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

purpose  for  which  it  was  instituted  is  to  prepare  young  men  for 
the  worthy  exercise  of  the  general  functions  of  the  priestly  office, 
and  the  good  it  has  done  is  soo  great  and  too  manifest  to  need 
commendation.  But  the  ecclesiastical  seminary  is  not  a  school  of 
intellectual  culture,  either  here  in  America  or  elsewhere,  and  to 
imagine  that  it  can  become  the  instrument  of  intellectual  culture 
is  to  cherish  a  delusion.  It  must  impart  a  certain  amount  of  pro- 
fessional knowledge,  fit  its  students  to  become  more  or  less 
expert  catechists,  rubricists  and  casuists,  and  its  aim  is  to  do  this, 
and  whatever  mental  improvement,  if  any,  thence  results,  is  acci- 
dental. Hence  its  methods  are  not  such  as  one  would  choose  who 
desires  to  open  the  mind,  to  giv^e  it  breadth,  flexibility,  strength, 
refinement  and  grace.  Its  text-books  are  written  often  in  a  bar- 
barous style,  the  subjects  are  discussed  in  a  dry  and  mechanical 
way  and  the  professor  wholly  intent  upon  giving  instruction,  is 
frequently  indifferent  as  to  the  manner  in  which  it  is  imparted, 
or  else  not  possessing  himself  a  really  cultivated  intellect,  he  holds 
in  slight  esteem  expansion  and  refinement  of  mind,  looking  upon 
it  as  at  best  a  mere  ornament.  I  am  not  offering  a  criticism 
upon  the  ecclesiastical  seminary,  but  am  simply  pointing  to  the 
plain  fact  that  it  is  not  a  school  of  intellectual  culture,  and  con- 
sequently, if  its  course  were  lengthened  to  five,  to  six,  to  eight, 
to  ten  years,  its  students  would  go  forth  to  their  work  with  a 
more  thorough  professional  training,  but  not  with  more  really  cul- 
tivated   minds. 

The  test  of  intellect  is  not  so  much  what  we  know  as  the 
manner  in  which  it  is  known;  just  as  in  the  moral  world,  the 
important  consideration  is  not  what  virtues  we  possess,  but  the 
completeness  with  Avhich  they  are  ours.  He  who  really  believes 
in  God,  serves  Him,  loves  Him,  is  a  hero,  a  saint ;  whereas  he 
Mdio  half  believes  may  have  a  thousand  good  qualities,  but  not  a 
great  character.  Knowledge  is  not  education  any  more  than  food 
is  nutrition ;  and  as  one  may  eat  voraciously,  and  yet  remain  with- 
out bodily  health  or  strength,  so  one  may  have  great  learning 
and  yet  be  wholly  lacking  in  intellectual  cultivation.  His  learning 
may  only  oppress  and  confuse  him,  be  felt  as  a  load,  and  not  as 
a  vital  principle,  which  upraises,  illumines  and  beautifies  the  mind; 
mentally  he  may  still  be  a  boy,  in  whom  memory  predominates, 
and    whose    intellect    is    only    a    receptacle  of    facts. 


UNIVERSITY  EDUCATION.  93 

Memory  is  the  least  noble  of  the  intellectual  faculties,  and  the 
nearest  to  animal  intelligence,  and.  to  know  Avell  is,  in  the  eyes 
of  a  true  educator,  of  quite  other  importance  than  to  know  much. 
But  a  memory,  more  or  less  well-stored,  is  nearly  all  a  youth 
■carries  Avith  him  from  the  college  to  the  seminary,  and  here  he 
enters,  as  I  have  already  pointed  out,  upon  a  course  not  of  in- 
tellectual discipline,  but  of  professional  studies,  whose  object  is  not 
^^to  open  the  mind,  to  correct  it,  to  refine  it,  to  enable  it  to 
know,  and  to  digest,  master,  rule  and  use  its  knowledge,  to  give 
it  power  over  its  own  faculties,  application,  flexibility,  method, 
critical  exactness,  sagacity,  resource,  eloquent  expression,"  but 
simply  to  impart  the  requisite  skill  for  the  ordinary  exercise  of 
the  holy  ministry.  Hence  it  is  not  surprising  that  priests,  who 
iire  zealous,  earnest,  self-sacrificing,  who  to  piety  join  discretion  and 
good  sense,  rarely  possess  the  intellectual  culture  of  which  I  am 
speaking,  for  the  simple  reason  that  a  university  and  not  a  semi- 
nary is  the  school  in  which  this  kind  of  education  is  received. 
That  the  absence  of  fuch  trained  intellects  is  a  most  serious 
obstacle  to  the  progress  of  the  Catholic  faith,  no  thoughtful  man 
will    doubt    or    deny. 

Since  the  mind  is  a  power,  in  religion  as  in  every  sphere  of 
thought  and  life,  the  discipline  which  best  develops  and  perfects 
its  faculties  will  fit  it  to  do  its  work,  whatever  it  may  be,  in  the 
most  effective  manner.  Hence,  though  the  education  of  which  I 
speak  does  not  directly  aim  at  being  useful,  it  is  in  fact  the  most 
useful,  and  prepares  better  than  any  other  for  the  business  of  life. 
It  enables  a  man  to  master  a  subject  with  ease,  to  fill  an  office 
with  honor,  and  whatever  he  does,  the  mark  of  completeness  and 
finish  Avill  be  found  upon  his  work.  He  sees  more  clearly,  judges 
more  calmly,  reasons  more  pertinently,  speaks  more  seasonably, 
than  other  men.  The  free  and  full  possession  of  his  faculties  gives 
him  power  to  turn  himself  to  whatever  may  be  demanded  of  him, 
Avhether  it  be  to  govern  wisely,  or  to  counsel  judiciously,  or  to 
write  gracefully,  or  to  plead  eloquently.  Wliatcver  course  in  life 
he  may  take,  whatever  line  of  thought  or  investigation  he  may 
pursue,  his  intellectual  culture  will  give  him  superiority  over  men 
who,  with  equal  or  greater  talents,  lack  his  education.  And  he 
possesses  Avithal  resources  within  himself,  which  in  a  measure  make 
him    independent  of  fortune,  and  which,  when  failure  comes   and  the 


94  SEIiMO^^S  OF  TUB  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

world    abandons    liim,    remain,   like    faith,    Or    hope,    or    a    friend,    to 
make    him    forget    his    misfortunes. 

Of  the  English  universities,  ■with  all  their  shortcomings,  Cardinal 
Ne\Yman  says  :  "At  least  they  can  boast  of  a  succession  of  heroes- 
and  statesmen,  of  literary  men  and  philosophers,  of  men  conspicu- 
ous for  great  natural  virtues,  for  habits  of  business,  for  knowledge 
of  life,  for  practical  judgment,  for  cultivated  tastes,  for  accomplish- 
ments, who  have  made  England  what  it  is — able  to  subdue  the 
earth,  able  to  domineer  over  Catholics."  It  is  only  in  a  university 
that  all  the  sciences  are  brought  together,  their  relations  adjusted, 
their  provinces  assigned.  There  natural  science  is  limited  by  meta- 
physics, morality  is  studied  in  the  light  of  history,  language  and 
literature  are  viewed  from  the  standpoint  of  ethnology,  the  criticism, 
which  seeks  beauty  and  not  deformity,  which  in  the  gardens  of  the 
mind  takes  the  honey  and  leaves  the  poison,  is  applied  to  the 
study  of  eloquence  and  poetry ;  and  over  all  religion  throws  the 
warmth  and  life  of  faith  and  hope,  like  a  ray  from  heaven.  The 
mind  thus  lives  in  an  atmosphere  in  which  the  comparison  of 
ideas  and  truths  with  one  another  is  inevitable,  and  so  it  grows, 
is  strengthened,  enlarged,  refined,  made  pliant,  candid,  open,  equitable. 

When  numbers  of  priests  will  be  able  to  bring  this  cultivation 
of  intellect  to  the  treatment  of  religious  subjects,  then  Avill  Cath- 
olic theology  again  come  forth  from  its  isolation  in  the  modern 
world ;  then  will  Catholic  truth  again  irradiate  and  perfume  the 
thoughts  and  opinions  of  men ;  then  will  Catholic  doctrines  again 
sink  into  their  hearts,  and  not  remain  loosely  in  the  mind  to  be 
thrown  aside,  as  one  casts  away  the  outworn  vesture  of  the  body; 
then  will  it  be  felt  that  the  fascination  of  Christian  faith  is  still 
fresh,  supreme,  as  far  above  the  charm  of  science,  as  the  joy  of 
a  poet's  soul  is  above  the  pleasures  of  sense.  The  religious  view 
of  life  must  forever  remain  the  true  view,  since  no  other  explains 
our  longings  and  aspirations,  or  justifies  hope  and  enthusiasm ;, 
and  the  worship  of  God  in  spirit  and  in  truth,  which  Christ  has 
revealed  to  the  world,  the  religion  not  of  an  age  or  a  people, 
but  of  all  times  and  of  the  human  race,  must  eternally  prevail 
when  brought  home  to  us  in  a  language  which  we  understand ; 
for  Ave  place  the  testimony  of  reason  above  that  of  the  senses. 
To  the  eye  the  sun  rises  and  sets ;  to  the  mind  it  is  stationary, 
and   we    accept,    not  what    is    seen,    but   what   is    known.     Is    there 


UNIVERSITY  EDUCATION.  95 

need  of  stronger  evidence,  that  the  power  within,  which  is  our 
real  self,  is  spiritual?  And  is  it  not  enough  to  see  clearly  to 
perceive  that  in  the  struggle  of  mind  with  matter,  which  is  the 
essential  form  of  the  conflict  of  spiritualism  with  materialism,  of 
religion  with  science,  the  soul,  in  the  end,  will  be  victorious  and 
rest  in  the  real  world  of  faith  and  intuition  and  not  in  the 
pictured   world    of  the    senses  ? 

Religion,  indeed,  like  morality,  is  in  the  nature  of  things,  and 
Catholic  faith  is  Una's  Red  Cross  Knight,  on  whose  shield  are  old 
dints  of  deep  wounds  and  cruel  marks  of  many  a  bloody  field, 
who  is  assailed  by  all  the  powers  of  earth  and  of  the  nether 
world,  armed  with  whatever  weapons  may  hurt  the  mind  or  cor- 
rupt the  heart,  but  whom  heavenly  providence  rescues  from  the 
jaws    of  monsters    and    leads    on    to    victory. 

But  what  true  believer  thinks  himself  excused  from  effort, 
because  Christ  has  declared  the  gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail 
against  His  Church  ?  Does  he  not  know  that  though,  when  we 
consider  her  whole  course  through  the  world,  she  has  triumphed, 
so  as  to  have  become  the  miracle  of  history,  yet  has  she  at 
many  points  suffered  disastrous  defeat?  Hence,  those  who  love 
her  must  be  vigilant  and  stand  prepared  for  battle.  And  in  an 
age  when  persecution  has  either  died  away  or  lost  its  harshness, 
when  crying  abuses  have  disappeared,  when  heresy  has  run  its 
course,  and  the  struggle  of  the  world  with  the  Church  has 
become  almost  wholly  intellectual,  it  is  not  possible,  assuredly, 
that  her  ministers  should  have  too  great  power  of  intellect.  And 
consequently  it  is  not  possible  that  the  bishops,  in  whose  hands 
the  education  of  priests  is  placed,  should  have  too  great  a  care 
that  they  receive  the  best  mental  culture.  And  if  this  be  a 
general  truth,  with  what  pertinency  does  it  not  come  home  to  us 
here  in  America,  who  are  the  descendants  of  men  who,  on  account 
of  their  faith,  have  for  centuries  been  oppressed  and  thrust  back 
from  opportunities  of  education,  and  who,  when  persecution  and 
robbery  had  reduced  them  to  ignorance  and  poverty,  were  forced 
to  hear  their  religion  reproached  with  the  crimes  of  her  foes? 
And  now,  when  at  length  a  fiircr  day  has  dawned  for  us  in 
this  new  world,  what  can  be  more  natural  than  our  eager  desire 
to  move  out  from  the  valleys  of  darkness  towards  the  hills  and 
mountain    tops    that    are   bathed   in    sunlight?     What   more    praise- 


96  SERMOXS  OF  THE  THIRD  PLEXARY  COUXCIL. 

Avorthy   than    the     fixed    resolve   to    prove    that     not    our    faith,    but 
our     misfortunes    made    and    kept    us    inferior?     And,    since    we    live 
in    the    midst    of    millions    who    have    indeed    good    will    towards    us, 
but   who    still     bear     the     yoke     of    inherited    prejudices,    and    who, 
because     for     three     hundred     years     real     cultivation     of    mind    was 
denied     to     Catholics    who     spoke     English,    conclude    that     Protest- 
antism   is    the    source   of  enlightenment,  and  the  Church,  the    mother 
of   ignorance,    do    not    all    generous    impulses    urge    us    to    make    this 
reproach    henceforth    meaningless?      And    in   wliat   way   shall    we   best 
accomplish    this    task?     Surely    not    by    writing     or     speaking    about 
what    the    influence    of  the    Church    is,    or    by    pointing    to    what   she 
has    done     in     other     ages,    but     by    becoming     what     we     claim    her 
spirit     tends     to     make     us.       Here,    if    anywhere,     the     proverb     is 
applicable  —  verba     movent,     exempla     trahunt.       As     the     devotion     of 
American     Catholics     to     this    country  and     its     free     institutions,    as 
shown     not     on     battlefields     alone,    but     in     our    whole    bearing    and 
conduct,    convinces     all     but     the     unreasonable     of    the     depth     and 
sincerity  of   our    patriotism,  so  when    our    zeal    for  intellectual  excel- 
lence    shall    have    raised    up    men    who    will   take    place    among    the 
first    writers     and     thinkers     of    their     day,    their    very   presence    will 
become    the    most    persuasive    of  arguments    to   teach    the   world    that 
no    best    gift    is    at   war   with    the    spirit    of   Catholic    faith,  and    that, 
while    the    humblest     mind  may    feel    its    force,    the    lofty    genius    of 
Augustine,    of  Dante    and    of  Bossuet,    is   upborne    and    strengthened 
by   the    splendor   of    its    truth.     But    if    we    are    to    be    intellectually 
the    equals    of    others,    we    must    have    with    them    equal    advantages 
of    education,    and    so    long    as    wo,    look    rather    to    the    multiplying 
of  schools   and    seminaries  than    to   the  creation  of  a  real   university, 
our    progress    will    be    slow    and    uncertain,    because    a    university    is 
the     great     ordinary    means     to    the    best    cultivation    of    mind.     The 
fact    that    the   growth    of  the    Churcli    here,    like   that    of  the    country 
itself,    is     chiefly    external,    a     growth    in    wealth     and     in    numbers, 
makes     it     the     more    necessary   that    we    bring    the    most    strenuous 
eflbrts    to    improve    the    gifts    of    the    soul.     The    whole    tendency    of 
our    social    life     insures    the    increase    of  churches,    convents,    schools, 
hospitals     and    asylums ;     our    advance    in    population    and    in    Avealth 
will    be     counted,    from     decade     to    decade,    by    millions,    and     our 
worship    will    approach    more    and    more    to    the    pomp    and    splendor 
of  the    full  ritual;    but   this  very  growth  makes   such  demands  upon 


UNIVERSITY  EDUCATION.  97 

our  energies,  that  we  are  in  danger  of  forgetting  higher  things,  or 
at  least  of  thinking  them  less  urgent.  Few  men  are  at  once 
thouglitful  and  active.  The  man  of  deeds  dwells  in  the  Avorld 
around  him ;  the  thinker  lives  within  his  mind.  Contemplation,  in 
widening  the  view,  makes  us  feel  that  what  even  the  strongest  can 
■do,  is  lost  in  the  limitless  expanse  of  space  and  time,  and  the  soul 
is  tempted  to  fall  back  upon  itself  and  to  gaze  passively  upon  the 
■course  of  the  world,  as  though  the  general  stream  of  human  events 
were  as  little  subject  to  man's  control  as  the  procession  of  the  sea- 
sons. Busy  workers,  on  the  other  hand,  having  little  taste  or  time 
for  reflection,  see  but  the  present  and  what  lies  close  to  them>  and 
the  energy  of  their  doing  circumscribes  their  thinking. 

But  the  Church  needs  both  the  men  who  act  and  the  men 
"who  tliink,  and  since  with  us  everything  pushes  to  action,  wisdom 
demands  that  we  cultivate  rather  the  powers  of  reflection.  And 
this  is  the  duty  alike  of  true  patriots  and  of  faithful  Catholics. 
All  are  working  to  develop  our  boundless  material  resources ;  let 
a  few  at  least  labor  to  develop  man.  The  millions  are  building- 
cities,  reclaiming  wildernesses,  and  bringing  forth  from  the  earth 
its  buried  treasures ;  let  at  least  a  remnant  cherish  the  ideal,  culti- 
vate the  beautiful,  and  seek  to  inspire  the  love  of  moral  and 
intellectual  excellence.  And  since  we  believe  that  the  Church  which 
points  to  heaven  is  able  also  to  lead  the  nations  in  the  way  of  civiliza- 
tion and  of  progress,  why  should  we  not  desire  to  see  her  become  a 
beneficent  and  ennobling  influence  in  the  public  life  of  our  country? 
She  can  have  no  higher  temporal  mission  than  to  be  the  friend 
of  this  great  republic,  which  is  God's  best  earthly  gift  to  His 
children.  If,  as  English  critics  complain,  our  style  is  inflated,  it 
is  because  we  feel  the  promise  of  a  destiny  which  transcends  our 
powers  of  expression.  Whatever  fault  men  may  find  with  us,  let 
them  not  doubt  the  world-wide  significance  of  our  life.  If  we 
keep  ourselves  strong  and  pure,  all  the  peoples  of  the  earth  shall 
yet  be  free ;  if  we  fulfill  our  providential  mission,  national  hatred 
shall  give  place  to  the  spirit  of  generous  rivalry,  the  people  shall 
become  wiser  and  stronger,  society  shall  grow  more  merciful  and 
just,  and  the  cry  of  distress  shall  be  felt,  like  the  throb  of  a 
brother's  heart,  to  the  ends  of  the  M'orld.  Where  is  the  man 
who  does  not  feel  a  kind  of  religious  gratitude  as  he  looks  upon 
the    rise    and    progress    of    this    nation?     Above     all,    where    is    the 

7 


98  SERMONS  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

Catholic  whose  heart  is  not  enlarged  by  such  contemplation? 
Here,  almost  for  the  first  time  in  her  history,  the  Church  is 
really  free.  Her  worldly  position  does  not  overshadow  her  spiritual 
office,  and  the  State  recognizes  her  autonomy.  The  monuments  of 
her  past  glory,  wrenched  from  her  control,  stand  not  hero  to  point, 
like  mocking  fingers,  to  what  she  has  lost.  She  renews  her  youth 
and  lifts  her  brow,  as  one  who  not  unmindful  of  the  solemn 
mighty  past,  yet  looks  Avith  undimmed  eye  and  unfaltering  heart 
to  a  still  more  glorious  future.  Who,  in  such  a  presence,  can 
abate  hope,  or  give  heed  to  despondent  counsel,  or  send 
regretful  thoughts  to  other  days  and  lands  ?  Whoever  at  any  time, 
in  any  place,  might  have  been  sage,  saint  or  hero,  may  be  so 
here  and  now ;  and  though  he  had  the  heart  of  Francis,  and  the 
mind  of  Augustine,  and  the  courage  of  Hildebrand,  here  is  work 
for   him   to    do. 

In  whatsoever  direction  we  turn  our  thoughts,  arguments  rush 
in  to  show  the  pressing  need  for  us  of  a  centre  of  life  and  light 
such  as  a  Catholic  university  would  be.  Without  this  we  can  have 
no  hope  of  entering  as  a  determining  force  into  the  living  con- 
troversies of  the  age ;  without  this  it  must  be  an  accident  if  we 
are  represented  at  all  in  the  literature  of  our  country ;  without 
this  we  shall  lack  a  point  of  union  to  gather  up,  haromonize  and 
intensify  our  scattered  forces ;  without  this  our  bishops  must  remain 
separated  and  continue  to  work  in  random  ways ;  without  this  the 
noblest  souls  will  look  in  vain  for  something  larger  and  broader 
than  a  local  charity  to  make  appeal  to  their  generous  hearts ; 
without  this  we  shall  be  able  to  oflfcr  but  feeble  resistance  to  the 
false  theories  and  systems  of  education  which  deny  to  the  Church 
a  place  in  the  school ;  without  this  the  sons  of  wealthy  Catholics 
will,  in  ever  increasing  numbers,  be  sent  to  institutions  where 
their  faith  is  undermined ;  without  this  we  shall  vainly  hope  for 
such  treatment  of  religious  questions  and  their  relations  to  the 
issues  and  needs  of  the  day,  as  shall  arrest  public  attention  and 
induce  Catholics  themselves  to  take  at  least  some  little  notice  of 
the  writings  of  Catholics ;  without  this  in  struggles  for  reform  and 
contests  for  rights  we  shall  lack  the  wisdom  of  best  counsel  and  the 
courage  which  skillful  leaders  inspire.  We  are  a  small  minority 
in  the  presence  of  a  vast  majority;  we  still  bear  tlie  disfigure- 
ments   and    weaknesses    of    centuries    of    persecution    and    suffering; 


UNIVERSITY  EDUCATION.  99 

we  cling  to  an  ancient  faith  in  an  age  when  new  sciences,  dis- 
coveries and  theories  fascinate  the  minds  of  men  and  turn  their 
thoughts  away  from  the  past  to  the  future ;  Ave  preach  a  spiritual 
religion  to  a  people  whose  prodigious  wealth  and  rapid  triumphs 
over  nature  have  caused  them  to  exaggerate  the  value  of  material 
progress ;  we  teach  the  duty  of  self-denial  to  a  refined  and  intel- 
lectual generation,  who  regard  whatever  is  painful  as  evil,  whatever 
is  difficult  as  omissible ;  we  insist  upon  religious  obedience  to  the 
Church  in  face  of  a  society  where  children  are  ceasing  to  rever- 
ence and  obey  even  their  parents ;  if  in  spite  of  all  this  we  are 
to  hold  our  own,  not  to  speak  of  larger  hopes,  it  is  plain  that 
we  may  neglect  nothing  which  will  help  us  to  put  forth  our  full 
strength. 

I  do  not,  of  course,  pretend  that  this  higher  education  is  all 
that  we  need,  or  that,  of  itself,  it  is  sufficient,  but  what  I  claim 
is  that  it  would  be  a  source  of  strength  for  us  who  are  in  want 
of  help.  God  works,  in  many  ways,  through  many  agencies,  and 
I  bow  in  homage  to  the  humblest  effort  in  a  righteous  cause  of 
the  lowliest  human  being.  There  are  diversities  of  graces,  but  the 
same  spirit ;  diversities  of  ministries,  but  the  same  Lord.  Num- 
qukl  omncs  dodoresf  asks  St.  Paul.  But  since  he  places  teachers 
by  the  side  of  apostles  and  prophets,  surely  they  will  teach  to 
best  purpose  who  to  the  humility  of  faith  add  the  luminousness  of 
knowledge.  To  those  who  reject  the  idea  of  human  co-operation 
in  things  divine  I  speak  not;  but  we  Avho  believe  that  Ave  are 
co-operators  Avith  Christ  cannot  think  that  it  is  possible  to  bring 
to  this  god-like  work  either  too  great  preparation  of  heart  or  too 
great  cultivation  of  mind.  Nor  must  Ave  think  lightly  even  of 
refinement  of  thought,  and  speech  and  behavior,  for  Ave  know  that 
manners  come  of  morals,  and  that  morals  in  turn  are  born  of 
manners,  as  the  ocean  breathes  forth  the  clouds,  and  the  clouds 
fill   the   ocean. 

Let  there  be  then  an  American  Catholic  university,  Avhere  our 
young  men,  in  the  atmosphere  of  faith  and  purity,  of  high  think- 
ing and  plain  living,  shall  become  more  intimately  conscious  of 
the  truth  of  their  religion  and  of  the  genius  of  their  country, 
where  they  shall  learn  the  repose  and  dignity  Avhicli  belong  to 
their  ancient  Catholic  descent,  and  yet  not  lose  the  fire  Mhicli 
glows    in    the    blood    of    a    new    people ;    to    Avhich    from    every   part 


100  SEEJIONS  OF  TUB  THIRD   PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

of  tne  land  our  eyes  may  turn  for  guidance  and  encouragement, 
seekino:  lisjlit  and  self-confidence  from  men  in  whom  intellectual 
power  is  not  separate  from  moral  purpose ;  who  look  to  God 
and    His    universe    from    bending    knees    of  prayer ;     who    uphold 

The  cause  of  Christ  and  civil  liberty 
As  one  and  moving  to  one   glorious  end. 

Should  such  an  intellectual  centre  serve  no  other  purpose  than 
to  bring  together  a  number  of  eager-hearted,  truth-loving  youths, 
what  light  and  heat  would  not  leap  forth  from  the  shock  of 
mind  with  mind ;  what  generous  rivalries  would  not  spring  up ; 
what  intellectual  sympathies,  resting  on  the  breast  of  faith,  would 
not  become  manifest,  grouping  souls  like  atoms,  to  form  the  sub- 
stance   and    beauty    of  a  world. 

O  solemn  groves  that  lie  close  to  Louvaiu  and  to  Freiburg, 
whose  air  is  balm  and  whose  murmuring  winds  sound  like  the 
voices  of  saints  and  sages  whispering  down  the  galleries  of  time, 
what  words  have  ye  not  heard  bursting  forth  from  the  strong 
hearts  of  keen-witted  youths,  who.  Titan-like,  believed  they  might 
storm  the  citadel  of  God's  truth !  How  many  a  one,  heavy  and 
despondent,  in  the  narrow,  lonesome  path  of  duty,  has  remembered 
you,  and  moved  again  in  unseen  worlds,  upheld  by  faith  and 
hope !  Who  has  listened  to  the  words  of  your  teachers  and  not 
felt  the  truth  of  the  saying  of  Pope  Pius  II — that  the  world 
holds  nothing  more  precious  or  more  beautiful  than  a  cultivated 
intellect  ?  The  presence  of  such  men  invigorates  like  mountain 
air,  and  their  speech  is  as  refreshing  as  clear-flowing  fountains. 
To  know  them  is  to  be  forever  their  debtor.  The  company  of  a 
saint  is  the  school  of  saints ;  a  strong  character  develops  strength 
in   others,    and    a    noble    mind    makes    all    around    him  luminous. 

"Why  may  not  eight  million  Catholics  upbuild  a  home  for  great 
teachers,  for  men  who,  to  real  learning  and  cultivation  of  mind, 
shall  add  the  persuasiveness  of  easy  and  eloquent  diction,  whose 
manifest  and  indisputable  superiority  shall  put  to  shame  the  self-con- 
ceit of  American  young  men,  our  most  familiar  intellectual  bane 
and  an  insuperable  obstacle  to  all  improvement — self-conceit,  Avhich 
is  the  beatitude  of  vulgar  characters  and  shallow  minds  ?  If  our 
students  should  find  in  such  an  institution  but  one  man,  wlio, 
like    Socrates,  with    ironic   questioning,    might    make    for    them    the 


UNIVERSITY  EDUCATION.  101 

discovery  of  the  new  world  of  their  own  ignorance,  the  gain 
would  be  great  enough. 

Why  may  we  not  have  a  centre  of  light  and  truth  which  will 
raise  up  before  us  standards  of  intellectual  excellence  which  will 
enable  us  to  see  that  our  so-called  educated  men  are  as  far  from 
beins:  scholars  as  the  makers  of  our  horrible  show-bills  are  from 
being  artists,  which  will  teach  us  that  it  is  not  only  false,  but 
vulgar  to  call  things  by  pretentious  names ;  as,  for  instance,  to 
call  a  politician  a  statesman,  a  declaimer  an  orator,  or  a  Latin 
school  a  university  ? 

Ah !  surely  as  to  whether  an  American  Catholic  university  is 
desirable  there  cannot  be  two  opinions  among  enlightened  men. 
But  is  it  feasible?  A  true  university  is  one  of  the  noblest  foun- 
dations of  the  great  Catholic  ages  when  faith  rose  almost  to  the 
height  of  creative  power,  and  it  were  folly  in  me  to  maintain 
that  such  an  undertaking  is  not  surrounded  by  many  and  great 
difficulties.  To  begin  with  the  material  for  foundation,  money  is 
necessary,  and  this,  I  am  persuaded,  we  may  have.  A  noble 
cause  will  find  or  make  generous  hearts.  Men  above  all  we  need, 
for  every  kind  of  existence  propagates  itself  only  by  itself.  But 
let  us  bear  in  mind  that  the  best  teacher  is  not  necessarily  or 
often  he  who  knows  the  most,  but  he  who  has  most  power  to 
determine  the  student  to  self-activity ;  for  in  the  end  the  mind 
educates  itself.  As  distrust  is  the  mark  of  a  narrow  intellect  or 
a  bad  heart,  so  a  readiness  to  believe  in  the  ability  of  others 
is  not  only  a  characteristic  of  able  men,  but  it  is  also  the  secret 
charm  which  calls  around  them  helpers  and  followers.  Hence,  a 
strong  man,  who  loves  his  work,  is  a  better  educator  than  a  half- 
hearted professor    who    carries    whole    libraries    in  his    head. 

To  bring  togetlier  in  familiar  and  daily  life  a  number  of  young 
men,  chosen  for  the  brightness  of  their  minds  and  an  eager  yearn- 
ing for  knowledge,  is  to  create  an  atmosphere  of  intellectual  warmth 
and  light,  which  invigorates  and  inspires  the  master,  while  it  stimu- 
lates his  disciples.  In  such  company  it  will  not  be  difficult  to 
form  teachers.  But  will  it  bo  possible  to  find  young  men,  who  Mill 
consent  when  after  years  of  study  they  have  finally  reached  the 
priesthood,  to  continue  in  a  higher  institution  the  arduous  and  con- 
fining labors  to  the  end  of  which  they  have  looked  as  to  the  begin- 
ning of  a  new  life  ?  In  other  lands  such  students  are  found  and  if 
with  us  there  is  a  tendency  to  rusli  with  precipitancy  and  insufficient 


102  SERMONS  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

preparation  to  whatever  work  we  may  liave  chosen,  this  is  but  a 
proof  of  the  need  of  special  efforts  to  restrain  an  ardor  which 
springs  from  weakness  and  not  from  strength.  Haste  is  a  mark 
of  immaturity.  He  who  is  certain  of  liimself  and  master  of  his 
tools,  knows  that  he  is  able,  and  neither  hurries  nor  worries  but 
Avorks  and  waits.  The  rank  weed  shoots  up  in  a  day  and  as 
quickly  dies,  but  the  long-growing  olive  tree  stands  from  century 
to  century  and  drops  from  its  gently  waving  boughs  ripe  fruit 
through  the  quiet  autumn  air.  The  Church  endures  forever,  and 
we  American  Catholics,  in  the  midst  of  our  rapidly-moving  and 
ever-changing  society,  should  be  the  first  to  learn  to  temper  energy 
with  the  patient  strengLh  which  gives  the  courage  to  toil  and 
wait  through  a  long  life,  if  so  we  make  ourselves  worthy  to  speak 
some  fit  word  or  do  some  needful  deed.  And  to  whom  shall  this 
lesson  first  be  taught  if  not  to  the  clerics  whose  natural  endow- 
ments single  them  out  as  future  leaders  of  Catholic  thought  and 
enterprise,  and  where  can  this  lesson  so  well  be  learned  as  in 
a  school  whose  standard  of  intellectual  excellence  shall  be  the 
highest  ? 

AVhile  we  look,  therefore,  to  the  founding  of  a  true  university, 
we  will  begin,  as  the  University  of  Paris  began  in  the  twelfth 
century,  and  as  the  present  University  of  Louvain  began  fifty 
years  ago,  with  a  national  school  of  philosophy  and  theology, 
which  will  form  the  central  faculty  of  a  complete  educa- 
tional organism.  Around  this  the  other  faculties  will  take  their 
places,  in  due  course  of  time,  and  so  the  beginming  Avhich  we 
make  will  grow,  until  like  the  seed  planted  in  the  earth,  it  shall 
wear    the    bloomy    crown    of  its    own    development. 

And  though  the  event  be  less  than  our  hope,  though  even 
failure  be  the  outcome,  is  it  not  better  to  fiiil  than  not  to  at- 
tempt a  worthy  work  which  might  be  ours  ?  Only  they  who  do 
nothing  derive  comfort  from  the  mistakes  of  others,  and  the  say- 
ing that  a  blunder  is  worse  than  a  crime  is  doubtless  true 
for  those  who  have  no  other  measure  of  worth  and  success  than 
the  conventional  standards  of  a  superficial  public  opinion.  We  at 
least    know  : 

There  lives  &  Judge 
To  whose  all-pondering  mind,   a  noble  aim 
Faithfully  kept  is  as  a  noble  deed : 
In  whose  pure  sight  all  virtue  doth  succeed. 


4 ,. 

HI.  Jlev.  Wm.  Qvlnn. 


'eiy  Ji'ti.  J.  M.  Farley 


Kt.  Rev.   Thos.  S.  Preston. 


liev.  Michael  Kelly. 


JU.  lif.v.  Geo.  U.  Doane. 


Itti.  J.  1'.   O't'oiiiitU,  D.J). 


Very  Ilev.  Henry  Clwccr,  D.D. 


Vtry  litV.Jvliii  T.  iSuUaaii. 


%l\t  ^^w^^itu  i^i  "^tnhimu 


SERMOI  OF  RIGHT  REY.  R.   aiLMOUR,  D.D., 


BISHOP   OF   CI.EVELAIID. 


IN  discussing  the  problems  of  the  age  there  are  two  or  three  cur- 
rents of  thought  tolerably  M'ell  marked.  Among  these  are  a 
sharply  defined  attack  upon  authority,  and  a  pretty  well  accepted 
determination  to  make  man  the  beginning  and  end  of  himself.  In 
the  sixteenth  century  reason  was  made  the  judge  of  faith.  What  it 
accepted  it  held  to  be  true;    what  it  rejected  it  held  to  be  false. 

The  results  of  thought  are  not  the  products  of  a  day,  so  when 
reason  was  made  its  own  master,  and  society  was  committed  to  its 
guidance,  it  required  time,  not  only  to  accept  the  new,  but  to  get  rid 
of  the  old.  The  united  and  uniform  teaching  of  the  Church  for 
sixteen  hundred  years  had  so  moulded  and  formed  public  thought 
that  time  alone  could  change  or  destroy  its  work.  But  thought  once 
started  and  fliirly  accepted  will  in  time  work  its  logical  results.  The 
human  mind  is  fairly  logical,  and  principles  once  accepted  are  in 
time  pushed  to  their  legitimate   conclusions. 

The  actors  of  the  French  Revolution  attempted  to  push  to  its 
legitimate  conclusion  the  doctrine  of  the  sixteenth  century  that 
"Reason  was  its  own  guide,"  but  society  was  not  then  sufficiently 
advanced  to  deify  reason,  or  to  accept  the  horrors  of  unbridled 
passion.  But  since  that  the  work  has  been  steadily,  and  of  late 
rapidly,  going  on,  giving  as  legitimate  results,  the  Communist  and 
Nihilist  as  the  advance  guard  of  our  Freethinkers,  Agnostics,  and 
Rationalists,  to  whom  is  to  be  added  that  vast  army  of  No- 
Churchmen,  steadily  but    imperatively  coming   up   to  fill  the  swelling 

(103) 


104  SERJIO^iS  OF  TUB  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

ranks  of  the  advance  guard,  who  boastingly  proclaim  themselves  the 
thinkers  of  the  age,  and  the  true  exponents  of  what  is  known  as 
"Modern  Thought." 

The  phrase  "  Modern  Thought "  expresses  two  forms  of  pro- 
gress— one  material,  the  other  spiritual.  That  the  present  age  has 
made  rapid  and  successful  progress  in  the  development  of  natural 
science  and  material  comfort  is  undeniable.  The  press  and  the 
railroad  are  rapidly  breaking  down  the  lines  between  nations,  and 
steadily  moulding  the  human  race  into  a  homogeneous  whole.  As 
long  as  "  Modern  Thought "  confines  itself  to  the  development  of 
the  natural,  it  is  to  be  commended  and  encouraged.  But  more 
than  mere  material  jirogress  is  needed  for  the  safety  of  society 
and  the  Avell-being  of  man.  There  is  needed  the  cultivation  of 
the  soul  and  the  maintenance  of  the  moral  law.  "  Thought,'^ 
whether  ancient  or  modern,  that  neglects  the  soul,  must  not  only 
be  condemned,   but  rejected,  let  it  be  modern  or  no  modern. 

Now  what   is    "Modern  Thought?"     What  is  its  drift? 

"  Modern  Thought "  is  not  of  modern  origin,  nor  is  it  a  single 
thought.  It  is  the  resume  of  the  thoughts  of  the  last  three 
hundred  years,  and  has  for  its  basal  thought :  "  Reason  is  supreme, 
and  physical  science  is  the  sole  test  of  truth?" 

In  the  discussions  of  the  day  we  hear  much  of  science  and 
discovery,  progress  and  liberty;  but  little  of  God  and  the  souL 
"  Modern  Thought "  seems  centered  on  man  and  nature.  God  and 
the  supernatural  are  either  denied  or  but  grudgingly  tolerated.. 
Dogma  and  creed  are  passing  away.  Heresy  has  attacked  every 
cardinal  doctrine  of  Christianity  and  been  defeated.  The  contro- 
versy of  the  age,  stripped  of  its  verbiage  and  reduced  to  its  simple 
form  is,  the  Natural  versus  the  Supernatural.  In  other  words,  does 
God  exist  in  society?  Has  He  any  rights  that  man  is  bound  ta 
recognize  ? 

I  know  quite  well  that  the  great  mass  of  society  has  not  yet 
reached  this  advanced  position,  but  I  do  also  know  that  thought 
never  rests,  and  that  once  the  human  mind  has  fairly  accepted 
a  thought,  it  will  in  time  push  it  to  its  logical  conclusion. 
AVhen  the  Reformation  made  reason  the  judge  of  God's  law,  it 
had  no  intention  of  pushing  the  consequences  to  their  present  po- 
sition ;  nor  did  the  authors  of  the  Fi'cnch  Revolution  intend  to 
end    in    the    deification    of    a    prostitute.     But    both    came,    and    the 


THE  NECESSITY  OF  REVELATION.  105 

siffns  of  the  times  arc  that  it  is  but  a  matter  of  time  when  the 
non-Catholic  workl  will  have  abandoned  Christian  faith  and 
dogma.  As  it  is,  the  non-Catholic  Churches  are  rapidly  losing 
their  hold  on  the  masses,  and  society  is  seeking  in  man  and 
nature  what  must  be  got  in  God.  Under  the  cry  of  "science" 
revelation  is  being  rejected ;  and  under  the  cry  of  "  progress "  the 
supernatural  is  scouted.  To  such  length  is  this  going  that  now 
the  question  is  no  longer,  "  Which  of  the  Christian  Churches  is 
the  true  Church?"  but,  "Is  there  a  Supernatural?"  "Is  there 
Revelation  ?  " 

The  man,  or  Church  that  to-day  boldly  declares,  "  God  reigns," 
requires  both  courage  and  vigor.  Courage,  to  assert '  the  doctrine ; 
vigor,  to  maintain  it.  "All  power  comes  from  the  people,"  says 
the  modern  statesman :  "All  knowledge  comes  from  nature,"  says 
the  modern  teacher.  These  two  propositions  cover  the  whole 
ground.  In  the  first,  man  is  made  the  beginning  and  end  of 
himself;  in  the  latter,  nature  is  made  the  limit  of  man's  hopes 
and  ambitions.  By  them  the  Supernatural  is  denied.  Revelation 
rejected,  and  God  dethroned.  For  the  supernatural  is  substituted, 
nature ;     for    revelation,    reason ;     for    God,    man. 

Is    there    then    a    Supernatural  ?     Is    there    a    Revelation  ? 

Nature  in  its  widest  sense  means  the  entire  collection  of 
things  created :  hence  the  distinguishing  mark  of  the  term  Nature 
is,  that  it  is  contingent,  finite,  limited.  Nature  from  this  point 
of  view  includes  every  species  of  creature  from  the  invisible  atom 
to  the  noblest  of  the  angelic  host.  By  this  definition  we  also  see 
that  Nature  is  the  creature  of  an  eternal,  self-oxisting  being,  who 
in  se  is  above  Nature.  With  the  naturalist  pure,  who  makes 
nature  its  own  creator,  we  have,  and  can  have  no  controversy,  for  the 
simplest  of  reasons  that  Nature  can  not  be  its  own  Creator.  Nor 
will  we  contend  with  the  pantheist,  who  would  make  all  nature 
God.  The  controversy  of  the  day  is  Avith  those  who  admit  a 
God,  but  deny  that  man  has  a  supernatural  end,  and  with  this, 
deny   revelation    as    given    us    in    the    Old   and    New    Testament. 

The  assumption  of  these  Naturalists,  who  admit  a  God  Creator 
is,  that  God  having  created  man,  left  him  with  the  powers  that 
He  had  given  him  to  work  out  his  own  destiny;  and  further, 
that  man  has  no  supernatural  end.  These  Naturalists,  who  are  so 
glib    and   ready  to    tell    us    all   about    Nature    and  God,  also   assume 


106  SUMMONS  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL, 

that  when  God  created  the  world  He  imposed  upon  Nature  laws, 
that  even  He  could  not  change,  and  on  this  assumption  they  deny 
the  possibility  of  miracles,  sneer  at  the  idea  of  prophecy,  and  the 
power    of  prayer. 

You  will  please  notice,  all  this  is  pure  assumption  and  asser- 
tion, for  which  these  Naturalists  offer  not  a  single  particle  of 
proof.  Their  whole  mode  of  reasoning  is,  to  assume  certain  con- 
clusions and  from  them  build  up  a  system  of  laws.  So  they 
assume,  Keason  is  its  own  beginning  and  its  own  end,  and  hence 
that  all  truth  is  subjective,  and  is  only  truth  so  far  as  Reason 
accepts  it.  It  was  on  this  principle  that  Protestantism  adopted 
"  Private  Interpretation  of  the  Bible "  as  its  foundation  stone,  a 
principle  that  has  led  to  the  melancholy  spectacle  of  the  present 
age,  in  which  we  see  society  seeking  in  Nature,  and  Science,  and 
human  power,  what  alone  can  be  found  in  God, — the  true  and 
only    supernatural. 

I  think  truth  is  entirely  too  delicate  with  error.  It  is  the 
duty  of  "  Modern  Thought "  to  prove  its  assumptions  and  verify 
its  assertions.  These  modern  theorists  assume  that  God  having 
created  Nature  lost  all  further  control  over  it,  and  has  no  further 
interest  in  it.  Now  this  assumption  knowingly  and  brazenly  ignores 
the  fact,  that  cannot  be  denied  or  disproved,  "that  God  precedes 
creation  and  from  Him  creation  gets  all  it  has."  It  is  therefore 
the  clear  duty  of  these  modern  assumption ists  to  prove  their  as- 
sumption ere  they  attempt  to  rob  God  of  what  is  clearly  His. 
God  is  in  posseession,  and  it  must  be  shown  that  He  has  lost 
possession  ere  "  Modern  Thought "  can  be  permitted  to  assert  its 
conclusions. 

God  is  supernatural,  and  though  He  could  have  created  man 
as  He  now  is — the  effects  of  the  Fall  excepted — and  left  him  to 
the  enjoyment  of  a  natural  happiness,  yet  as  a  matter  of  fact  He 
did  not ;  on  the  contrary,  from  the  beginning  God  destined  man 
for  a  supernatural  end,  and  coeval  with  man's  creation  God  re- 
vealed Himself  to  man  and  added  grace  to  nature,  so  that  from 
the  first  moment  of  man's  existence  he  had,  and  knew  he  had  a 
supernatural    end. 

Theoretically  we  can  consider  man  at  the  moment  of  creation, 
with  all  his  powers  of  nature  in  a  state  of  perfection.  Con- 
sidered    in     this     state     of    pure     nature     it   is    permissible    to   teach 


THE  NECESSITY  OF  REVELATIOX.  107 

that  man  had  within  himself  all  the  power  needed  lo  reach  his 
natural  beatitude.  But  as  a  matter  of  fact,  man  v,'as  at  no 
moment  of  his  existence  in  a  state  of  pure  nature,  nor  is  he 
now.  Before  the  fall  man  had  what  theologians  call  integral 
nature,  that  is,  pure  nature  elevated  to  the  supernatural  by  grace 
xind  revelation.  The  Fall  did  not  destroy  nature,  though  it  weak- 
ened it  by  depriving  man  of  grace  by  which,  without  other  help, 
he  would  have  reached  the  supernatural.  Man  in  his  present 
state  cannot  be  discussed  as  if  he  were  in  the  condition  he  was 
before  the  Fall.  Then  he  was  with  the  powers  of  nature  unim- 
paired, and  in  the  fullness  of  grace ;  now  he  is  with  grace  lost 
and  nature  weakened,  and  passion  impelling  him  on  to  evil.  We 
must  then  take  man  as  he  is,  not  as  he  was,  nor  as  he  can  be 
conceived.  Now  it  is  a  fact  of  individual  and  universal  exper- 
ience, that  man  in  his  present  state  cannot,  with  his  present 
powers,  unaided  by  grace,  reach  a  state  of  natural  perfection,  far 
less  supernatural.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  certain  man,  as  he  now 
is,  cannot  of  himself  keep  the  natural  law.  This  inability  comes 
not  from  the  insufficiency  of  pure  nature  for  itself,  but  from  the 
inefficiency  of  pure  nature  for  the  end  above  pure  nature  to 
which  man  has  been  graciously  called  by  God.  Besides  man's 
inability,  in  his  present  state,  to  keep  the  whole  law  of  nature, 
it  is  a  demonstrated  fact  that  at  no  time  and  under  no  form  of 
human  existence  has  man  been  able,  without  the  aid  of  revelation, 
to  formulate  a  system  of  religion  capable  of  sustaining  him,  or 
keeping  him  within  the  law  of  nature.  At  his  worst,  in  the 
savage  state,  man  is  little  less  than  brute.  At  his  best,  in 
Greek  and  Roman  society,  passion  was  deified  and  man  without 
hope.  Here  and  there  may  be  seen  a  glimpse  of  higher  thought 
and  purer  morality,  as  in  Socrates  and  Plato,  and  Cicero  and 
Seneca,  but  this  was  either  a  remnant  of  the  primitive  revelation, 
which  was  never  entirely  lost,  or  it  came  from  the  Jewish  law, 
which  was  tolerably  well  known  throughout  the  East.  Yet  a 
Christian  child,  taught  the  first  rudiments  of  his  religion,  knows 
more  of  God  and  creation ;  of  man  and  his  powers  and  destiny, 
than    the    wisest    of  pagan    philosophers. 

If  then  man  in  his  present  state,  and  as  we  now  find  him,  is 
unable  of  his  own  power  to  keep  the  whole  law  of  nature ;  and, 
further,    if  man    of  his    own   powers  is    unable  to  create  a  system   of 


108  SFRJIONS  OF  TUB  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

religion  fit  to  govern  and  purify  society,  then  we  are  forced  either 
to  admit  the  existence  of  revelation,  or  to  charge  God  with  liaving 
created  man  and  then  left  him  without  the  means  of  reaching 
reasonable  perfection  here  and  ultimate  perfection  hereafter.  But 
such  assumption  is  impossible,  as  God  is  not  only  just,  but  gen- 
erous, and  hence  could  not  and  did  not  leave  man  without  the 
means  of  reaching  his  end.  It  is  therefore  imperative  to  conclude, 
that  as  man  cannot,  by  the  powers  of  nature  keep  nature's  law,  nor 
devise  a  system  of  religion  fit  to  govern  society,  then  God  hath 
given  grace  and  revelation,  that  by  them  man  may  be  saved  and 
society  directed,  and  this  is  entirely  in  conformity  with  man's 
nature  and  with  the  whole  history  of  the  human  race. 

The  tradition  of  a  primitive  revelation  is  a  permanent,  con- 
tinuous fact  of  history.  It  permeates  its  every  page  and  forms  the 
basal  thought  of  every  tribe  and  people.  Everywhere  there  is  the 
memory  of  the  creation  and  the  fall :  a  heaven,  a  hell,  a  Redeemer, 
a  God  supreme.  The  wail  of  the  human  race  is  and  has  been 
for  a  beatitude  once  possessed,  but  now  lost.  The  cravings  of 
the  human  heart  are  for  happiness  beyond  the  grave,  all  proving 
not  that  a  revelation  is  necessary,  but  that  a  revelation  has  already 
been  made. 

The  history  of  the  world  is  explicable  only  on  the  assump- 
tion of  a  supernatural  revelation.  The  Jews  are  a  proof  of  this ; 
the  Church  is  a  proof  of  this ;  the  traditions  of  every  race  and 
people,  even  in  their  rudest  condition,  is  a  proof  o£  this.  It  is 
the  fact  of  history,  and  is  found  in  every  form  and  phase  of 
detail  in  the  Gentile,  Jewish  and  Christian  world.  Any  attempt 
to  explain  the  history  of  the  Jews,  or  the  rise  and  continuance  of 
Christianity  without  the  existence  of  a  supernatural  Providence  is 
a  failure.  Gibbon  tried  to  explain  the  rise  of  the  Church,  exclud- 
ing God  and  revelation,  and  failed ;  Voltaire  tried  it,  and  failed ; 
Macaulay  tried  it,  and  failed ;  our  modern  infidels  and  rationalists 
have  tried  it,  and  failed. 

Admit  the  fact  of  revelation  and  all  history  is  not  only 
explainable,  but  the  aspirations  of  the  soul  and  the  cravings  of 
the  heart  are  explainable.  Admit  the  fact  of  revelation  and  the 
object  of  human  existence  and  rational  life  is  explainable.  Admit 
that  man  has  a  soul  and  at  once  you  bring  him  into  relation 
with    God    and    the    supernatural,    and    give  a  reason  for  immortality 


THE  NECESSITY  OF  REVELATION.  109 

and  the  complement  of  his  being.  History  is  an  undeniable  fact, 
and  in  it  is  found  written  on  every  page  thereof  the  clear  perma- 
nent evidence  of  a  primitive  revelation  that  has  never  been 
entirely  lost,  and  is  the  underlying  and  enlightening  element  of  all 
•Gentile  thought.  Tiie  creation,  the  fall,  a  Redeemer,  a  heaven,  a 
hell,  a  supreme  God,  are  found  in  multiplied  variety  amid  every 
tongue  and  people  past  and  present.  The  force  of  this  testimony 
■cannot  be  ignored  nor  overlooked ;  on  the  contrary  it  is  a  most 
powerful  and  overwhelming  argument  in  proof  of  the  existence  of 
a   supernatural   revelation. 

Man  is  composed  of  body  and  soul.  The  body  is  mortal,  the 
soul  immortal.  From  the  first  moment  of  man's  existence  he  was 
conscious  of  the  spirituality  and  immortality  of  his  soul.  Down 
through  the  ages  of  history,  amid  civilized  and  savage,  man's 
immortality  has  ever,  and  everywhere  been  accepted  and  taught, 
corrupted  if  you  please,  but  the  doctrine  simple  has  always  been 
accepted  as  the  faith  of  mankind.  As  a  part  of  this  immortality, 
the  soul  has  certain  inherent  longings  for  a  higher  and  nobler 
end  than  life  here  can  give.  This  longing  is  not  confined  to  the 
enlightened,  the  sage  or  philosopher.  It  is  felt  by  the  lowest,  it 
is  proclaimed  by  the  highest.  The  feticism  of  the  savage,  as  well  as 
the  poetic  creations  of  the  polished  Greek  and  Roman  are  founded 
•on  it.  Another  world  where  the  soul  will  dwell,  blessed  for  the 
good,  or  punished  for  the  evil  done  in  life,  has  been  and  is  a 
■doctrine  co-extensive  with  the  human  race.  This  longing  reaches 
beyond  any  created  good,  and  will  be  satisfied  with  nothing  less 
than  God,  the  supreme  good.  Even  God  as  attainable  by  nature 
Avill  not  suffice,  nothing  less  than  God  in  the  supernatural  com- 
pletely satisfies  these  cravings  of  the  soul.  Whether  these  longings 
and  cravings  were  inherent  in  man's  heart  as  a  part  of  pure 
nature  matters  not,  as  at  no  moment  of  man's  existence  was  he 
limited  to  a  state  of  pure  nature.  These  longings  exist.  They 
enter  into  all  man's  acts  and  thoughts.  Reason  admits  there  is 
an  unknown  reality  beyond  the  limits  of  rational  knowledge.  'Now 
whence  comes  this  universal  longing,  this  universal  belief?  The 
longing  comes  from  the  nature  of  the  soul,  the  belief  comes  from 
the  primitive  tradition  given  to  man  at  the  moment  of  creation. 
This  longing,  and  this  tradition  are  not  denied  even  by  the 
incredulous.     Philosophy  leads    to    faith,  faith    to    the    beatific    vision. 


110  SUEJIONS  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL, 

Science,  says  tlie  modern  teacher,  destroys  faith,  because  it  lays  bare 
and  exhibits  to  reason  and  the  senses  what  faith  teaches,  forget- 
ting that  science  ends  in  nature,  while  faith  begins  in  super-nature, 
that  is,  science  ends  where  faith  begins.  But  faith  is  revelation,, 
and  revelation  is  an  exterior  manifestation  of  a  supernatural  truth 
made  by  God  to  man,  which  may,  or  may  not,  be  discoverable 
by  human  reason.  If,  like  the  existence  of  God  and  the  immor- 
tality of  the  soul,  the  doctrine  revealed  can  be  discovered  by 
reason,  then  revelation  but  confirms  reason;  but  if  the  revelation 
cannot  be  discovered  by  reason,  then  tlic  truth  of  the  revelation 
will    depend    upon    the    credibility    of   the    witness. 

If  God  in  person  makes  the  revelation  directly  to  man,  as  he 
did  to  Adam,  He  first  proves  that  He  is  God.  If  He  makes 
the  revelation  through  others,  as  He  did  through  Moses  and  the 
prophets,  then  He  proves  by  miracles  that  He  speaks  through 
them.  The  miracles  attest  the  witness,  and  the  witness  attests  the 
revelation. 

Miracles  and  prophecy  are  infallible  evidence  that  God  speaks,, 
as  none  but  God  can  work  a  miracle,  and  none  but  God  can 
foretell  the  future.  Magicians  and  soothsayers  may  by  the  power 
of  the  devil  work  wonders  and  for  a  moment  deceive ;  so  may 
diviners  make  happy  guesses.  But  a  miracle  or  prophecy  in  its 
true    meaning    can    only    be    by    the   power    and    knowledge    of    God. 

When  Moses  appeared  before  Pharaoh  and  the  Israelites,  he 
proved  by  miracles  that  he  was  sent  by  God.  When  the  prophets 
came,  they  not  only  proved  their  mission  by  miracles,  but  the 
fulfillment  of  their  prophecies  hundreds  of  years  after  proved  the 
revelations  made  were  of  God.  When  Christ  came  He  proved 
by  miracles  that  He  was  God,  then  He  made  His  revelations  and 
proclaimed  His  law.  The  miracle  proves  the  veracity  of  the  wit-^ 
ness,  and  the  fulfillment  proves  the  truth  of  the  prophecyo  And 
the  miracle  and  the  prophecy  prove  the  revelation.  Now,  has  God 
wrought    miracles?     Has    God    given   prophecies? 

The  infidel  denies  both,  but  the  testimony  of  the  whole  Jew- 
ish people  proclaims  the  miracles  of  Moses,  and  Josue  and  the 
prophets.  The  Apostles  and  the  multitude  saw  the  miracles  of 
Christ,  and  they  were  so  clearly  the  works  of  God  that  even  the 
ignorant  exclaimed,  "  God  hath  visited  His  people."  The  prophe- 
cies   of  the    patriarchs    and   prophets    read    like    a   page    of  past   his- 


THE  NECESSITY  OF  REVELATION.  Ill 

tory,  so  complete  are  they  in  their  fulfillment  and  minute  in 
every  detail  of  time,  and  place,  and  person.  If  human  testimony 
is  evidence  of  fact,  then  the  existence  of  miracles  and  proph- 
ecy is  not  only  beyond  doubt,  but  beyond  the  possibility  of 
rational  discussion.  But  miracle  and  prophecy  are  the  evidence 
that  God  hath  spoken,  and  the  word  of  God  is  direct  revelation 
from  God  to  man,  giving  us  the  supernatural  and  all  that  is- 
embraced    in    the    word,    religion. 

But  if  God  hath  spoken  and  given  man  divine  revelation,  as 
undoubtedly  He  has,  then  revelation  must  be  accepted.  God's 
word  is  not  an  empty  sound.  God  is  the  beginning  and  the  end, 
the  creator  and  preserver  of  all  there  is  or  can  be.  From  Him 
and  by  Him  nature  gets  her  laws  and  man  his  being,  and  with- 
out Him  there  is  and  can  be  nothing.  Man  is  but  a  breath,  and 
creation  but  the  fiat  of  His  will.  He  is  supreme.  His  law  is 
supreme.  What  we  have  is  His.  What  we  can  do  is  by  Him. 
Of  ourselves  we  can  not  add  a  hair  to  our  head,  nor  an  hour  to 
our  lives.  He  made  us  as  v^q  are,  the  eflPects  of  sin  excepted. 
We  have  therefore  no  rights  as  against  God,  and  therefore  no  right 
to  gainsay  His  word,  or  discuss  His  law.  When  He  speaks  there 
remains  but  obedience,  but  obedience  founded  on  reason,  which 
tells  us  God  is  truth  and  can    not   deceive. 

But  says  the  man  of  "  Modern  Thought "  this  is  the  doctrine 
of  master  and  slave,  and  I  am  a  freeman  and  must  act  according 
to  reason.  But  in  obeying  God  you  do  act  according  to  reason, 
nay,  exercise  the  highest  powers  of  reason,  because  reason  teaches 
us  to  give  to  every  one  his  due.  Now  we  owe  to  God  all  we 
are,  have,  or  can  do.  We  are  absolutely  His,  body  and  soul.  He 
is  therefore  our  Sovereign  Lord  and  Proprietor  with  the  absolute 
right,  as  absolute  owner,  to  do  what  He  will  with  us.  When 
therefore  God  reveals  Himself  to  man,  there  remains  for  man  but 
to  accept  the  revelation,  but  it  is  the  duty  of  God  to  prove  that 
it  is  God  who  speaks,  and  not  till  God  has  proved  to  reason  that 
it  is  God  who  speaks,  has  God  a  right  to  demand  from  reason 
obedience   and    acceptance. 

Catholic  doctrine  teaches  that  reason  precedes  faith  and  that 
faith  confirms  reason.  It  farther  teaches  that  faith  is  above  reason 
but  never  contradicts  reason.  When  therefore  God  comes  before 
reason    it   is    the    duty    of   God     to    prove    that     He    is   God.      But. 


112  iSFBMOI^S  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL, 

when  by  miracles  He  has  proved  that  He  is  God  then  reason  is 
bound  to  accept  Him  and  all  He  says  or  does.  When  God  ap- 
peared to  Adam,  He  proved  He  was  God ;  when  He  appeared  to 
the  patriarchs  and  prophets,  He  proved  He  was  God;  when  Christ 
appeared  upon  earth  He  proved  He  was  God ;  in  each  case  by 
such  signs  and  works  as  left  no  possible  doubt  that  it  was  God 
who  spoke.  "When  God  thus  speaks  by  signs  and  miracles  reason 
is  bound  to  accept  what  God  says,  if  reason  will  act  according  to 
reason. 

!Now,  when  God  created  man.  He  not  only  endowed  him  with 
the  powers  of  nature,  but  at  the  same  moment  He  made  Him- 
self known  to  man  and  proposed  to  him  a  supernatural  end.  In 
the  course  of  time  when  God  would  add  to  the  primitive  revela- 
tion, He  called  to  himself  patriarchs  and  prophets  and  sent  them 
forth  with  signs  and  miracles  to  speak  the  words  which  He 
placed  in  their  mouths.  So  marked  were  these  miracles  and  so 
clear  and  minute  the  prophecies,  that  only  the  malicious  unbeliever 
can   disbelieve    or    doubt. 

It  is  easy  to  doubt.  It  is  easy  to  pretend  to  disbelieve,  scout 
prophecy,  and  pretend  that  miracle  is  impossible,  but  it  is  impos- 
sible to  ignore  the  fact,  that  from  the  day  of  creation  down  to 
the  present  time  revelation  is,  and  has  been  the  cardinal  fact  of 
history,  just  as  Christ  has  been  the  cardinal  fact  of  revelation. 
It  cannot  be  ignored  nor  denied.  It  will  not  down,  and  though 
at  times  individuals,  or  large  portions  of  society  may  deny  it,  or 
in  part  reject  it,  yet  revelation  ever  returns  to  stare  the  world 
in  the  face  and  demand  a  hearing  and  acceptance.  At  the  present 
moment  "Thought"  has  started  in  a  current  of  exaggerated 
humanity,  by  which  man  is  pitted  against  God,  and  under  the  cry 
of  liberty,  progress  and  the  rights  of  man,  God  and  religion  are 
assailed — in  Europe  by  open  hostility  to  the  Catholic  Church,  in 
America  by  widespread  indifference  to  religion.  The  basal  thought 
of  the  present  non-Catholic  world  is,  that  religious  forms  and  beliefs 
are  matters  of  indifference,  if  the  heart  is  right.  To  such  extent  has 
this  gone  tliat  outside  the  Catholic  Church  religion  is  banished  from 
the  school ;  and  our  youth  are  reared  without  God  or  religion. 

The  sky  looks  dark  indeed.  Morality  is  on  the  wane,  and  the 
standard  of  truth  and  justice  steadily  sinks.  Our  public  men  are  no 
longer  chosen  for  their  lionesty  and  ability,  but  for  their  availability. 


THE  NECESSITY  OF  REVELATION.  113 

The  unity  of  marriage  has  ended  in  divorce  and  polygamy.  Our 
youth  are  irreverent,  blasphemy  stalks  the  land,  and  drunkenness 
and  lust  are  a  stench  in  the  nostrils.  Material  progress  has  replaced 
religion,  the  temporal  is  preferred  to  the  eternal,  the  body  to  the 
soul,   man  to  God. 

In  such  state  of  things  it  behooves  us  not  only  to  defend 
revelation,  but  to  insist  upon  its  acceptance.  It  is  the  heresy  of 
the  day  that  man  is  not  bound  to  accept  religion.  It  is  true  man 
is  not  bound  to  accept  religion  from  man,  and  therefore  as  man 
against  man,  we  can  assert  religious  freedom,  but  as  man  against 
God,  man  is  bound  to  accept  religion;  nay  more  than  that,  he  is 
bound  to  accept  pure  and  simple  the- religion  God  gives  him. 

It  is  true,  by  the  gift  of  free  will  man  has  the  power  to  dis- 
obey God  and  reject  his  law,  but  there  is  a  vast  difference  be- 
tween the  power  to  disobey  and  the  right  to  disobey.  Man  has 
no  right  to  disobey  God,  or  to  reject  his  law.  But  revelation 
is  the  law  of  God  to  man,  hence  man  has  no  right  to  reject 
revelation,  or  to  substitute  man's  word  for  God's  word.  God's  word 
must  be  accepted.  Revelation  must  be  accepted.  Religion  must  be 
accepted.  Tlie  Church  must  be  accepted,  because  she  is  the  voice 
of  God  to  man.  It  behooves  us  as  Catholics,  it  behooves  .t»he 
non-Catholic  Christian  world  to  rally  round  the  standard  of  God, 
and  to  say  to  infidelity  and  irreligion :  "  Thus  far  and  no 
farther."  If  we  will  save  our  country,  we  must  build  on  religion. 
If  we  will  save  our  youth,  we  must  build  on  morality.  If  we 
will  save  our  laws  and  institutions,  we  must  build  on  truth  and 
justice.  Our  youth  must  be  taught  reverence,  passion  must  be 
bridled,  drunkenness  suppressed,  marriage  sanctified,  and  lust 
subdued. 

We  must  cease  permitting  sentiment  to  rule,  teach  religion  and 
replace  God  in  society.  The  State  must  take  from  the  Church, 
as  the  Church  takes  from  God,  and  both  must  work  for  a 
<;oramon  end.  It  is  folly  to  assert  that  the  State  can  prosper 
without  the  Church,  or  society  exist  witthout  religion.  God  must 
rule,  man  must  obey.  Religion  must  be  accepted  and  revelation 
maintained. 


hnlm  MmUm, 


SERMOI  OF  MOST  REY.  C.  J.  SEaHEES,  D.D., 

ARCHBISHOP   OF   OREGON    CITY. 


"She  reacheth  therefore  from  end  to  end  mightily  and  ordereth  all  things  sweetly." 
• — Wisdom,  e.  viii,  v.  1. 

CHRISTOPHER  COLUMBUS  fitted  out  his  ship  to  sail  in 
search  of  a  western  route  to  India ;  European  monarchs  sent 
their  viceroys  to  take  possession  of  newly  discovered  tracts  of 
land  and  to  add  them  to  their  domains ;  adventurers  left  Europe 
in  quest  of  gold ;  merchants  dispatched  their  vessels  to  supply  the 
markets  of  the  Old  World  with  the  produce  of  the  new  conti- 
nent ;  but  over  all  that  bustle  and  that  feverish  activity  there 
was,  in  the  designs  of  God  and  in  the  mind  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  a  lofty  object  kept  in  view,  to  which  these  actions  of 
men  were  made  subservient,  as  means  are  used  to  reach  an  end; 
and  that  was  to  call  to  the  true  faith  numerous  tribes  seated  in 
darkness  and  in  the  shadow  of  death,  to  make  known  to  them 
the  glad  tidings  of  the  Gospel,  to  throw  open  to  them  the  por- 
tals of  the  Church  and  to  point  out  to  them  the  road  towards 
heaven. 

Ask  me  not  why  Divine  Wisdom  deferred  till  the  fifteenth 
century  to  communicate  the  treasures  of  the  new  law  to  the  inhab- 
itants of  the  New  World.  When  we  view  tlic  vicissitudes  of  things 
and  the  fluctuation  of  events  to  which  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel 
and  the  professions  of  the  true  faith  have  been  subject  in  both  parts 
of  this  continent,  we  may  thank  God  for  the  existence  and  the 
vitality  of  the  Church  here  in  these  days.  Other  countries  in  the 
Old  World    received    the   true   faith  much  earlier  than  this  continent,, 

(114) 


Ihr.  F.  Ooller. 


Rev.  V.  P.  Grannan,  D.D. 


Very  lien.  F.  Viayrich,  O.ii'S.Ji. 


r^ 


Very  liev.  D.  E.  Lyman,  V.  F. 


Bev.  T.  P.  Tlwrpe. 


Most  Bev.  J.  J.  Lynch,  D.l). 


lit.  liev  J.  V.  Vleary,  1).  I). 


Rt.  Rev.  John  Walsh,  D.D. 


Rt.  Rev.  J.  J.  Carbery,  D.D. 


INDIAN  MISSIONS.  115 

but  they  lost  it  completely  long  ago.  Perhaps  America  received  the 
true  faith  later  to  keep  it  forever. 

Alas !  for  the  wickedness  of  man.  The  antecedent  will  of  God 
and  the  desires  of  the  Sacred  Heart  of  Jesus  are  often  frustrated  by 
our  evil  actions.  Devoted  men,  apostolic  priests,  zealous  mission- 
aries were  not  wanted  in  the  past  to  undertake  the  work  of 
the  conversion  of  the  aborgines  of  America.  And  when  the  Do- 
minican Las  Casas,  the  Jesuits  Marquette,  Breboeuf  and  Goupil, 
the  Franciscan  Junipero  Serra,  and  a  host  of  others  crossed  the 
ocean,  mountains,  lakes  and  rivers  to  penetrate  into  the  forest  in 
search  of  the  erring  sheep,  the  angels  looked  down  upon  these 
apostles  -  of  the  cross  with  joy  and  admiration  and  exclaimed : 
"  How  beautiful  upon  the  mountains  are  the  feet  of  them  that 
bring  good  tidings  and  that  preach  peace."  (Isaias,  ii,  2.)  For 
if  there  is  joy  in  heaven  at  the  sight  of  one  sinner  that  does 
penance,  what  must  have  been  the  rejoicings  of  the  angels  and 
saints  at  the  prospect  of  millions  about  to  be  converted  and  made 
holy? 

But  when  we  review  the  work  of  the  last  three  centuries  in 
both  the  northern  and  southern  part  of  this  continent,  we  are  prone 
to  ask  "Has  the  white  race  done  justice  to  the  red  man?  We 
hear,  indeed,  of  flourishing  Christian  communities  of  Indians,  in 
Canada,  in  Mexico,  in  California,  in  Paraguay,  recorded  by  historians 
with  terms  of  admiration;  but  the  rapacity  of  the  adventurer,  the 
tyranny  of  the  ruler,  the  evil  passions  of  the  profligate,  the  anti- 
Christian  spirit  of  certain  secret  organizations  and  other  causes 
beyond  the  reach  of  my  research  have  prevented  the  spread  of 
Christianity  in  some  places,  and  rooted  up  the  Church  in  others. 
St.  Paul  speaks  of  an  interchange  of  spiritual  and  temporal  things 
between  those  that  impart  the  Christian  doctrine  and  those  that 
receive  it ;  the  latter  receive  spiritual,  the  former  receive  temporal 
things.  (Gal.,  vi,  6.)  We  are  in  possession  of  the  red  man's  country, 
we  occupy  his  hunting  ground,  we  are  masters  of  the  soil  where 
his  wigwam  stood;  have  we  communicated  to  him  the  light  of  the 
Gospel  that  is  in  us?  Daniel  speaks  of  the  angel  of  the  Persians 
and  of  the  angel  of  the  Greeks.  (Dan.,  x,  20.)  We  infer  therefrom 
that  every  nation  is  placed  by  Almighty  God  under  the  guidance 
and  protection  of  an  angel.  Behold  the  angel  of  the  Indian  race : 
his  countenance   is    not  lit  up  with  gladness,  his    eyes    do    not  beam 


116  SI:RMO^''S  of  tub  third  plenary  council. 

with  joy,  his  lips  bear  not  the  graceful  curve  of  a  pleasing  smile ; 
he  ]ioints  to  the  soil  of  this  continent,  bleached  with  the  bones, 
red  with  the  blood  and  l^laek  Avith  the  ruins  of  a  destroyed  race 
of  men.     Let    us  .draw    a    veil   over    this    gloomy    picture. 

The  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles  when  deploring  the  reprobation 
of  his  countrymen,  exclaims  Mith  the  prophet  Isaias,  (Rom.  ix.  27), 
"Reliquiae  salva  iient — a  remnant  shall  be  saved;"  let  us  say  the 
same,  in  our  age,  of  the  remnant  of  the  Indian  race.  If  vast 
numbers  of  them  have  disappeared  from  the  earth,  if  instead  of 
bringing  to  them  the  olive  branch  of  civilization,  we  have  followed 
towards  them  a  policy  of  extermination,  let  at  least  those  that 
remain  be  an  object  of  our  charity.  Arise,  zealous  missionaries, 
apostles  of  the  cross,  and  continue  the  work  begun  by  holy  men ! 
Your  mission  is  a  noble  one.  When  our  Lord  was  requested  by 
St.  John  to  give  proof  of  the  divine  origin  of  His  work,  He  did 
not  say,  "  The  rich  are  evangelized,"  but  He  answered,  "  Pauperes 
evangelizautur."  "The  poor  have  the  Gospel  preached  to  them." 
What  better  proof  do  we  wish  that  the  work  of  the  Gospel 
among  the  aborigines  is  a  continuation  of  the  work  of  Christ  ? 
Blessed  therefore  be  the  memory  of  Norbert  Blanchet,  Modeste 
Demey  and  Father  De  Smet,  who  like  Abraham  went  out  of 
their  country  and  of  their  kindred,  to  cross  the  lofty  range  of  the 
Rocky  ]\Iountains  and  proceeded  as  far  as  the  shores  of  the 
Pacific,  because  they  could  go  no  further.  Blessed  those  that  walk 
in  their  footsteps.  Blessed  also  those  that  continue  the  good  work 
in  the  Indian  Territory,  in  Dakota,  Nebraska,  Montana,  Wisconsin 
and  other  States  and  Territories.  I  say  they  are  blessed,  for  do 
you  not  remember,  beloved  brethren,  that  our  Lord  pronounced 
His  curse  on  the  man  who  scandalizes  the  little  ones  and  "  through 
whom  evil  cometh?"  If,  therefore,  the  one  who  gives  scandal  and 
does  spiritual  evil  to  his  neighbor  is  anathematized  by  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  is  it  not  evident  that  he  is  blessed  that  does  good 
to  and  edifies  and  sanctifies  and  saves  the  little  ones  ?  Who  are 
those  whom  Christ,  in  another  place,  calls  the  least  of  His  brethren  ? 
Are  not  the  Indians  the  least  of  the  brethren  of  Christ?  The 
least — yes,  the  poorest,  the  most  ignored  and  the  most  despised. 
Blessed,  I  repeat  it,  those  who  contribute  to  the  work  of  their 
edification    and    sanctification. 

In    the    address     I    am    making    to    you    this     evening,    beloved 


INDIAN  MISSIONS.  117 

brethren,  I  have  for  object  to  secure  your  favor,  to  enlist  your 
sympathy  in  behalf  of  this  good,  great  and  meritorious  work  of 
christianization  and  civilization  of  the  aborigines.  I  say  chris- 
tianization  and  civilization,  for,  say  what  they  will,  the  people  of 
this  country  will  never  convert  and  civilize  the  Indians  by  schools, 
unless  the  latter  be  based  upon  the  Christian  faith  and  permeated 
with  '  a  Christian  atmosphere.  Religion  and  civilization  go  hand  in 
hand ;  discard  religion  and  you  prepare  the  condition  of  the  bar- 
barian or  the   savage. 

But  how  shall  I  succeed  in  making  you  feel  interested  in  this 
work?  It  seems  to  me  that  I  cannot  find  a  more  successful  way 
than  by  giving  a  description  of  our  missionary  work  among  the 
Indians,  and  this  I  will  do  by  dwelling  on  the  difficulties  we 
met  with,  or  the  obstacles  we  have  to  overcome.  Let  me  premise 
two  remarks :  1.  I  desire  chiefly  to  speak  of  the  work  of  the 
conversion  of  the  Indians  as  we  find  them  in  their  primitive, 
untutored  and  savage  condition.  2.  I  wish  to  dwell  chiefly  on  facts 
that  have  come  within  my  own  knowledge  and  personal  observ^ation. 
I  trust,  therefore,  you  will  excuse  and  pardon  me  if  I  refer  often 
to  myself,  if  I  often  speak  of  myself.  Not  wishing  to  state 
things  which  I  know  from  hearsay,  I  will  speak  of  things  I  saw 
with  my  own  eyes  and  heard   with  my  own   ears. 

The  diocese  about  to  be  confided  to  my  care  consists  of  two 
parts — Vancouver  Island  and  Alaska,  formerly  known  as  Russian 
America,  and  now  a  part  of  this  republic.  Originally  these  terri- 
tories formed  part  of  an  immense  vicariate  apostolic,  embracing 
the  whole  western  part  of  North  America,  from  California  to  the 
Arctic  Ocean,  but  that  immense  vicariate  was  subsequently  divided 
into  dioceses,  and  Vancouver  Island  welcomed  her  first  bishop,  the 
late  Modeste  Demers,  in    1851. 

Vancouver  Island  is  nearly  three  hundred  miles  in  length,  and 
the  population  consists  partly  of  whites,  who  dwell  chiefly  in  the 
towns  of  Victoria,  Nanaimo  and  Esquimalt,  and  in  the  settlements  of 
Saanich,  Cowichan  and  Comox,  and  of  Indian  tribes  numbering 
about  11,000.  There  are  but  eleven  priests  in  the  whole  island 
to  minister  to  all  these  people,  and  the  absence  of  pecuniary 
resources  places  an  obstacle  in  the  way  of  increasing  the  number 
of  the   faithful. 

An    Indian   tribe     numbering    4,000,    and    occupying   the    western 


118  SEEMONS  OF  Tim  THIRD  PLENARY  COUJS^CIL. 

shore  of  the  island,  was  seated  in  the  darkness  of  error  and  in 
the  shadow  of  death  until  1874,  when,  being  then  Bishop  of  Van- 
couver Island,  and  accompanied  by  one  priest,  I  visited  the  twenty- 
one  villages  into  which  that  tribe  is  divided,  preaching  to  them 
the  lioly  faith ;  and  we  succeeded  in  the  course  of  that  year  in 
teaching  all  those  Indians  all  the  Catholic  prayers  in  their  own 
language,  besides  several  religious  canticles,  and  in  baptizing  960  of 
their  children  under  seven  years  of  age.  And  there,  where  before 
my  first  visit  in  1869  no  priest  had  ever  set  foot,  are  now  three 
churches  and  four  priests  laboring  to  evangelize  and  Christianize 
those  poor  people.  Alaska,  formerly  Russian  America,  which  is 
larger  than  all  the  New  England  States  together,  contains  60,000 
Indians  as  yet  unconverted  to  the  faith.  In  1879  I  built  a 
church  and  stationed  a  priest  at  Wrangel,  a  small  town  in  the 
southern  part  of  that  territory,  but  he  was  later  on  recalled  to 
Vancouver  Island,  where  his  services  were  indispensable,  so  that  in 
this  immense  country,  and  among  that  multitude  of  souls,  there  is 
now  not  a  single  Catholic  priest.  After  the  father's  departure  an 
Indian  woman  Avas  seen  Sunday  after  Sunday  kneeling  before  the 
closed  door  of  the  church,  beseeching  our  Lord  to  send  a  priest 
again  to  that  mission.  Who  can  refuse  aid,  so  that  this  poor 
woman's  prayer    may  be    heard,  and    the  door  of  the    church    opened 


once  more 


9 


In  1879  I  left  the  Diocese  of  Vancouver  Island  to  become 
Archbishop  of  Oregon,  and  I  was  called  to  Rome  last  year  with 
the  other  Archbishops  of  the  United  States  to  assist  in  preparing 
for  the  next  Council  in  Baltimore.  And  when  in  November  last 
the  Cardinal  Prefect  of  the  Propaganda  expressed  his  grave  appre- 
hensions for  the  future  of  Catholicity  in  the  Diocese  of  Vancouver 
Island,  which  was  vacant,  and  which  there  was  no  prospect  of 
providing  with  a  bishop,  I  volunteered  to  leave  Oregon  and  to 
return  to  my  former  Diocese  of  Vancouver  Island.  My  offer  was 
both  gladly  accepted  by  the  Propaganda  and  approved  by  the 
Holy  See. 

More  priests  are  needed  to  establish  new  missions  both  on  the 
island  and  in  Alaska,  for  the  harvest  indeed  is  great,  but  the 
laborers  few.  Brothers,  too,  are  needed  to  educate  the  Indian 
children.  Then  the  necessary  vestments  and  sacred  vessels  for  the 
suitable    celebration   of    divine   worship    are    wanting.      Furthermore, 


INDIAy  3IISSI0NS.  119 

a  new  clmrch  and  a  new  house  for  the  clergy  are  urgently  needed 
in  Victoria,  the  bishop's  place  of  residence  in  Vancouver  Island. 
The  present  cathedral  is  a  wooden  structure,  75  feet  long,  and  can 
last  but  a  few  years  longer.  The  bishop's  house,  also  of  wood,  is 
fast  decaying,  and  its  unhealthiness  exposes  the  clergy  to  serious 
danger.  Such  are,  in  brief,  the  reasons  that  have  determined  me 
to  travel  from  country  to  country,  from  town  to  town,  yes,  from 
house    to   house,    to    solicit    the   aid    of    my   brethren    in    the  faith. 


^ffnsttatt  '^«f«8j^, 


SEEHOH  OF  RIGHT  EEY.  M.  J.  O'FARRELL.  D.D., 

BISHOP   OF   TREHTOK,  K.  J. 


Test: — SL  Paul  to  the  UpJiesians,  c.  v,  v.  22-31. 

DURING  the  past  week  you  listened  to  some  admirable  ais- 
courses  upon  the  Christian  Church,  her  constitution,  her 
mission  and  her  characteristic  marks.  You  also  heard  a  most 
eloquent  lecture  on  Christian  education,  its  necessity,  its  extent 
and  its  advantages.  But  there  is  another  great  truth  underlying 
them  both.  They  describe  the  magnificent  building,  rising  lofty 
and  beautiful,  challenging  the  attention  and  exciting  the  admiration 
of  thoughtful  observers.  But  beneath  there  must  be  a  solid  basis 
to  support  the  weight.  To  bear  up  this  mighty  structure,  whose 
beauty  and  majestic  proportions  have  so  arrested  our  gaze,  there 
must  be  broad  and  strong  foundations.  So  whilst  we  admire  the 
strength  and  durability  of  the  Christian  Church,  whilst  we  exalt 
the  merits  and  advantages  of  Christian  education,  let  us  remember 
that  underlying  all  is  the  Christian  flimily.  All  Christian  society, 
the  whole  edifice  of  Christian  civilization,  rest  upon  it.  There  is  no 
Christian  society  without  the  Christian  family,  and  no  Christian 
family  without  Christian  marriage.  Thus  we  are  naturally  led  to 
the  subject  of  this  evening's  discourse. 

Again,  on  the  other  hand,  when  we  cast  our  eyes  around  and  see 
the  many  evils  that  afflict  our  modern  society — family  ties  loosened 
and  family  honor  so  frequently  stained;  paternal  authority  losing  its 
force  and  treated  with  disrespect;  filial  obedience  constantly  declining; 
domestic  quarrels  and  discords  so  often  darkening  our  social  life*  the 

(120) 


Vtry  iitf.  Al.  Aibeiick-. 


Very  Rev.  Joseph  M.  Lesen,  O.M.C. 


Jit.  Rev.  Mw.  O'Bara,  D.D. 


•"^w  "^i^ 


Xery  Uev.  Edward  McCoUjun,  V.  (i. 


\  1/ !/  /.■<(■.  A'.  So/  III,  I  .H.C 


Very  Rev  F.  A.  iStanton,  O.H.A. 


'Mm*M^.  'i-^^^^^ 


Very  Rev.  Thomas  Uteffaninl,  CI'. 


Rt.  Rev.  I.  Robot,  O.fi.n. 


Very  Uev.  Leo  J)a  iSarracena^O.S.F. 


CHRISTIAN  MARRIAGE.  121 

sacred  obligations  of  wife  and  mothei*  cast  aside  in  so  many 
instances,  as  too  irksome  to  be  borne ;  shameful  crimes  and  horrible 
excesses,  that  should  not  even  be  mentioned  amongst  Christians,  so 
well  known  and  in  some  places  so  common ;  the  very  laws  of  nature 
wantonly  and  unblushingly  trampled  under  foot — when  we  see  these 
and  many  other  evils  we  naturally  ask  what  can  have  given  rise 
to  them  and  whence  do  they  spring?  If  we  make  the  examination 
seriously  we  shall  find  that,  for  the  greater  part,  they  arise  from 
ignorance  or  contempt  of  the  true  nature  of  Christian  marriage 
or  violation  of  its  laws.  Through  false  teaching  and  the  lawless 
tyranny  of  unrestrained  passions  many  have  lost  the  true  notion 
of  the  institution  of  marriage,  such  as  God  and  nature  has 
established. 

It  becomes  then  our  duty,  particularly  at  a  season  like  this, 
when  the  representatives  of  the  entire  Catholic  Church  in  this 
great  country  are  gathered  together  in  this  Plenary  Council,  to 
announce  the  full  truth  concerning  the  nature  and  obligations  of 
Christian  marriage.  We  owe  it  to  you,  dear  brethren,  faithful 
children  of  holy  Church,  in  order  to  warn  you  and  fortify  you 
against  the  false  and  corrupt  maxims  of  the  age ;  and  we  owe 
it  also  to  our  fellow-countrymen,  to  whatever  religious  denomina- 
tion they  may  belong — "for  we  are  debtors  to  all" — that  they 
too  may  learn  these  important  truths  and  all  society  be  blessed 
through    the    knowledge. 

Marriage  was  instituted  by  God  Himself  for  the  propagation  and 
preservation  of  the  human  race.  It  differs  from  all  other  con- 
tracts made  by  men,  which  derive  their  binding  force  from  the  will 
of  the  contracting  parties  and  from  human  laws  which  sanction 
them.  They  depend  entirely  on  the  conditions  affixed  to  them. 
They  are  limited  both  in  duration  and  force  by  the  terms  of  the 
agreement.  Men  can  place  their  conditions  upon  every  other  con- 
tract; they  buy  or  sell,  lend  or  borrow,  as  they  may  agree,  and 
human  laws  will  ratify  the  compact,  unless  it  should  be  considered 
injurious    to    the    public    good. 

But  in  marriage  it  is  not  so;  for  marriage  is  of  divine  institu- 
tion and  can  exist  only  on  the  conditions  fixed  by  God  Himself. 
Christian  marriage,  in  its  essence,  can  be  governed  only  by  the  laws 
of  the  divine  legislator  of  the  Christian  Church.  Society  did  not 
institute    marriage,    for    marriage   was    established    before    all    society. 


122  suEMo^''s  OF  tub  third  plenary  council. 

Without  it  society  could  not  have  existed.  The  same  God  who 
-established  society  and  communicated  to  it  the  powers  necessary 
for  its  preservation,  instituted  marriage  as  the  foundation  upon 
which  all  society  rests.  We  must  then  first  examine  the  manner  of 
its  establishment  and  the  conditions  and  laws  assigned  to  it,  and 
accept  them  as  coming  from  God.  No  human  laws  can  avail  against 
divine  ones.  Society  cannot  legislate  against  the  eternal  Law  Giver. 
The  fundamental  and  primordial  law  of  marriage  and  the  absolute 
<!ondition  of  Christian  marriage  is  its  unity  and  indissolubility.  Mar- 
riage is  the  union  of  one  man  with  one  woman  for  purposes  intended 
by  the  Creator,  and  this  union  must  be  forever.  Such  was  mar- 
riage at  the  beginning  of  the  world.  Such  did  it  become  again  when 
our  divine  Saviour  restored  it  to  its  primitive  state,  and  even 
raised  it  higher  still,  making  its  unity  and  indissolubility  more 
perfect  by  appointing  it  one  of  the  sacraments  of  His  law  and 
the  type  of  the  perfect  union  existing  between  Himself  and  His 
Church. 

The  words  of  Christ  laying  down  the  doctrine  of  marriage  are 
found  both  in  His  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  in  St.  Matthew,  5th 
chapter,  31st  verse,  but  still  more  at  length  in  the  19th  chapter 
of  the  same  Evangelist,  4th  and  following  verses,  to  ^hich  I  shall 
more   particularly   refer. 

The  circumstances  which  led  to  this  declaration  deserve  our 
consideration.  There  were  amongst  the  Jews  at  that  time  two  fac- 
tions which  held  different  opinions  M-ith  regard  to  the  causes 
which  would  justify  divorce,  as  the  Jewish  law  permitted  it.  One 
party  maintained  that  divorce  was  lawful  for  any  cause,  no  matter 
how  trivial.  The  other  faction  held  that  for  no  cause,  except  for 
adultery  on  the  part  of  the  wife,  could  the  marriage  tie  be  dissolved. 
The  Pharisees  hoped  to  ensnare  the  Saviour,  and  by  obliging  Him 
to  give  a  decision  that  He  would  certainly  displease  either  one  of  the 
factions  and  make  new  enemies  for  Himself.  "  They  therefore 
asked  Him,"  says  the  Scripture,  "  tempting  Him :  Is  it  lawful  for 
a  man  to  put  away  his  wife  for  any  cause  ? "  How  admirably 
Jesus  avoids  the  snare,  and  yet  still  makes  known  His  will  and 
doctrine  about  marriage.  "  Have  you  not  read,"  says  He  with  gen- 
tle irony — "  you  learned  men,  so  profoundly  skilled  in  the  Sacred 
Scriptures — have  you  not  read  that  He  who  made  man  in  the 
beginning,    made     them     male    and    female  ? "     And    He    said :   "  For 


CHRISTIAN  MARRIAGE.  123 

this  cause  shall  man  leave  father  and  mother  and  shall  cleave 
unto  his  wife,  and  they  two  shall  be  in  one  flesh.  "Wherefore 
they  are  no  more  two,  but  one  flesh.  What,  therefore,  God  has 
joined  together  let  no  man  put  asunder."     (St.  Mat.,  xix,  4-G.) 

In  those  clear  words  the  Saviour  takes  them  back  to  tlie  origi- 
nal institution  of  marriage,  to  the  beginning  of  all  things.  When 
God  created  man  He  made  only  two  persons,  only  one  man  and 
one  woman,  not  one  man  and  several  women.  He  thus  indicated 
by   the    very   fact   of  their    creation    the    unity    of  the    marriage    tie. 

Not  only  by  facts  and  the  mode  of  creation  did  God  manifest 
the  unity  of  marriage,  but  also  by  His  words :  "  Wherefore  shall 
man  leave  his  father  and  his  mother  and  shall  cleave  to  his  wife, 
and  they  who  were  two  shall  be  one."  Our  Lord  here  attributes 
to  God  Himself  these  words,  which,  as  we  learn  from  Genesis,  M'ere 
uttered  by  Adam ;  because  it  was  God's  inspiration  and  in  the 
spirit  of  prophecy  that  he  pronounced  them.  "  For  this  cause," 
that  is,  as  the  woman  had  been  created  from  the  side  of  man, 
and  thus  formed  part  of  his  being,  that  she  was  bone  of  his 
bone  and  flesh  of  his  flesh ;  as  the  man  and  the  woman  had 
been  one  before  the  separation,  so  they  must  become  one  again 
when  God  unites  them;  j)roptcr  hoc,  for  this  cause,  shall  man 
give  up  all  else,  his  nearest  and  dearest  affections,  even  father 
and  mother,  and  shall  cleave  to  his  wife  with  the  deepest  love, 
and  be  united  to  her  in  the  closest  of  all  relations ;  so  intimate, 
so  sacred  that  "  now  these  two  are  but  one  flesh."  And  to  make 
this  point  still  clearer,  our  Lord  Himself  draws  the  conclusion 
from  all  that  preceded  —  "therefore  they  are  no  more  two,  but 
one  flesh."  See  how  He  insists  upon  this ;  therefore  they  are 
after  marriage  only  one,  where  they  had  been  two  before.  Finally 
He  lays  down  the  supreme  principle  and  the  final  conclusion — 
"what  therefore  God  hath  joined  together  let  no  man  put  asun- 
der." Remark  how  He  does  not  even  say  ^' ichom  God  has  joined," 
but  '■^wliat  God  has  joined" — the  contract  which  God  has  thus 
formed,  the  one  person  thus  constituted  out  of  two  by  God  Him- 
self, no  man  can  put  asunder.  No  human  power  can  break  this 
bond.  This  union  is  the  work  of  the  Omnipotent  Creator ;  let 
not  man  dare  to   meddle  with   it. 

The  Pharisees,  disconcerted  at  this  reply,  so  entirely  unex- 
pected,   urge    strongly   an    objection.     If    that    be    as     you    state,    if 


124  SEEJIOJiS  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

marriage  be  naturally  indissoluble,  "  why,  then,  did  Moses  command 
to  give  a  bill  of  divorce  and  to  put  away?"  Our  Lord  gently 
corrects  their  exaggeration.  "  Moses,  because  of  the  hardness  of 
your  hearts,  jjermittcd  you  to  put  away  your  wives."  Moses  did 
not  command  the  divorce,  he  only  tolerated  it  on  account  of 
your  stubborn  dispositions,  to  avoid  greater  evils.  "  But  from  the 
beginning  it  was  not  so."  Before  Moses  granted  the  permission, 
from  the  very  foundation  of  the  world,  marriage  was  indissoluble. 
And  now  I,  greater  than  Moses,  I  who  have  come  to  give  a 
more  perfect  law  than  that  of  Moses,  I  withdraw  this  toleration, 
I  restore  marriage  to  its  primitive  purity  and  unity — "  I  say  to 
you,  whosoever  shall  put  away  his  wife,  except  it  be  for  fornica- 
tion, and  shall  marry  another,  committeth  adultery;  and  he  who 
shall  marry  her  that  is  put  away  committeth  adultery."  The 
whole  Catholic  Church  firmly  holds  that  the  apparent  exception  stated 
by  our  Lord  does  not  destroy  the  marriage  tie;  that  the  guilty 
wife  may  be  dismissed  from  her  home,  but  the  marriage  remains 
unbroken.  This  is  not  the  place  to  enter  fully  into  all  the  rea- 
sons which  justify  this  doctrine.  It  is  sufficient  here  to  indicate 
that  the  whole  context  and  tenor  of  Christ's  discourse,  and  the 
entire  purpose  of  His  argument,  absolutely  requires  this  sense ; 
that  the  greatest  of  the  Fathers  of  the  Church  asserted  it ;  that 
the  entire  Latin  Church  for  fifteen  hundred  years  before  the 
Reformation,  and  the  whole  Catholic  Church  since,  has  always 
maintained  it.  The  arguments  to  prove  these  diilerent  points 
would  be  out  of  place  in  a  plain  discourse  like  this  to-night, 
and  Avould  require  it  to  be  prolonged  beyond  all  reasonable  limits. 
I  will  simply  refer  to  this  reasoning  which  you  can  all  follow. 
When  the  other  Evangelists,  St.  Mark  and  St.  Luke,  relate  this 
scene  and  quote  the  words  of  the  Saviour  they  affirm  absolutely 
the  law  and  make  no  mention  of  the  supposed  exception.  Thus,. 
in  St.  Mark,  x,  11,  it  is  stated  that  when  the  disciples  asked 
their  Master  to  explain  His  Avords,  He  thus  replied  in  the  most 
general  terms :  "  Whosoever  shall  put  away  his  wife  and  marry 
another  committeth  adultery  against  her.  And  if  the  wife  shall 
put  away  her  husband  and  be  married  to  another,  she  committeth 
adultery."  Again,  in  St.  Luke,  xvi,  18  :  "  Every  one  that  putteth 
away  his  wife  and  marrieth  another  committeth  adultery:  and  he 
that    marries    her    that   is    put    away    from    her    husband    committeth 


CHRISTIAN  MARRIAGE.  125 

adultery."  Here  there  is  no  exception  to  the  law,  nor  any  excuse 
for  making  an  exception,  "Whoever  marries  the'  woman  that  is 
put  away  by  her  husband,  no  matter  on  what  ground  or  pretext 
she  was  put  away,  commits  adultery."  Therefore,  the  ,  first  mar- 
riage is  never  broken,  for  if  it  were,  the  woman  put  away  would 
be  free  to  marry  again,  and  he  who  should  marry  her  could  not 
be  guilty  of  adultery  in  so  doing.  Therefore,  the  words  of  the 
Saviour  must  be  taken  in  their  plain,  literal  sense  as  the  only 
-one  that  the  early  Christians  who  might  have  only  the  Gospel 
of  St.  Mark  or  that  of  St.  Luke  could  possibly  attach  to  them. 
Again  let  us  see  how  the  Apostles  understood  the  law.  St. 
Paul,  the  great  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles,  will  serve  as  interpreter 
for  all.  Here  is  what  he  declares  in  his  Epistle  to  the  Romans, 
viii,  2,  3 :  "  For  the  woman  that  hath  a  husband,  whilst  her 
husband  liveth,  is  bound  to  the  law ;  but  if  the  husband  be  dead, 
she  is  loosed  from  the  law  of  her  husband.  Wherefore,'  whilst  her 
husband  liveth,  she  shall  be  called  an  adulteress,  if  she  be  with 
another  man:  but  if  her  husband  be  dead,  she  is  free  from  the 
law  of  her  husband ;  so  that  she  is  not  an  adulteress  if  she  be 
with  another  man."  Again,  1  Cor.,  vii,  10,  11:  "To  them  that 
are  married,  not  I,  but  the  Lord  commandeth,  that  the  wife 
depart  not  from  her  husband,  and  if  she  depart,  that  she  remain  un- 
married." And  in  the  same  chapter,  v.  39 :  "  A  woman  is  bound 
by  the  law  as  long  as  her  husband  liveth;  but  if  her  husband 
die,  she  is  at  liberty,  let  her  marry  whom  she  will."  Thus  it 
is  clearly  stated  by  St.  Paul  that  marriage  is  indissoluble, — tliat 
the  woman  is  bound  to  her  husband  as  long  as  he  lives,  and 
that  nothing  but  death,  no  human  enactment,  no  State  or  eartlily 
power,  can  loose  the  bonds  which  bind  them  together.  Finally  the 
same  doctrine  is  placed  upon  even  higher  grounds  in  the  beau- 
tiful words  of  my  text — Epistle  to  the  Ephesians,  v.  22,  where 
he  declares  that  the  union  of  man  and  wife  is  typical  of  the 
union  between  Christ  and  His  Church,  and  must  last  forever, 
for  as  Christ  shall  never  be  separated  from  His  Spouse,  the 
Church,  M-hich  He  loved  and  for  whicli  He  delivered  Himself 
up,  that  He  might  sanctify  it,  so  also  men  ought  to  love  their 
wives  as  their  own  bodies.  "He  that  loveth  his  wife,  loveth 
himself"  Hence  he  can  no  more  be  separated  from  his  wife  than 
he    can    from   himself,    or   than    Christ   from    His    Church. 


126  SERirO^^S  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

Such  was  the  doctrine  laid  down  by  the  Apostle  of  nations  ,- 
such  was  the  doctrine  taught  the  entire  world  by  the  Christian 
Church :  and  it  was  by  virtue  of  this  law  and  this  divine  insti- 
tution of  marriage  that  she  undertook  to  regenerate  corrupt  and 
dissolute    peoples. 

It  is  impossible  to  describe  the  degraded  condition  into  which 
the  world  had  fallen  when  the  Christian  Church  began  her  mis- 
sion. Society  was  rotten  to  the  core.  The  true  notion  of  the 
family  had  disappeared, — and  w^oman  was  little  better  than  a  slave 
in  the  household,  entirely  dependent  on  the  caprices  or  tyranny 
of  the  husband, — at  one  time  his  plaything, — at  another  his  victim. 
Home  —  home  as  w-e  understand  it,  with  all  its  sweet  memories 
and  hallowing  associations — was  entirely  unknown.  The  Chris- 
tian Church  renewed  all.  She  reconstructed  the  family  and  made 
it  the  firm  basis  of  the  new  Christian  society.  She  raised  up 
woman  from  her  social  degradation.  She  gave  the  Avife  an  as- 
sured position  that  no  tyranny  could  deprive  her  of.  She  made 
her  the  queen  of  the  domestic  circle, — the  guardian  angel  of  the 
home,  the  partner  of  her  husband,  his  true  helpmate  and  com- 
panion,— increasing  his  joy,  sharing  in  his  sorrows,  ever  associated 
Mith  him  in  the  responsibilities  of  the  family.  The  Christian 
mother  was  invested  with  a  sacred  dignity  such  as  paganism 
never  recognized.  Her  children  looked  up  to  her  with  the  most 
loving  reverence  and  called  her  and  made  her  truly  blessed.  With 
this  elevation  of  woman  in  the  family  circle  by  the  assured  cer- 
tainty of  her  position  in  her  home,  the  Church  laid  the  founda- 
tion of  a  new  society.  Christendom  was  formed  by  the  Christian 
family, — as  the  family  itself  by  Christian  marriage.  To  this  was 
Christendom  indebted  for  the  higher  civilization  which  it  attained 
above  the  rest  of  the  world.  The  noblest  energies  of  man  were 
developed,  and  the  most  heroic  qualities  manifested.  Christian 
marriage  elevated  the  nations  of  Europe  to  the  highest  degree  of 
true  civilization,  whilst  polygamy  corrupted  and  degraded  the  peoples 
of  Asia.  Had  the  Church  not  fought  bravely  and  unremittingly 
the  battle  for  the  indissolubility  of  marriage,  Europe  would  have 
sunk  into  the  same  degradation  as  the  INIahometan  nations.  But 
the  Catholic  Church  never  faltered.  Against  the  fierce  passions  of 
the  half-barbaric  tribes, —  against  the  unbridled  lusts  of  despotic 
rulers,  she    constantly  asserted    the    divine    rights    of    marriage.     The 


CHRISTIAN  MARRIAGE.  127 

Sovereign  Pontiffs,  the  faithful  defenders  of  truth  and  morality,  were 
ever  foremost  in  the  struggle.  Again  and  again  throughout  the 
Middle  Ages  did  this  voice  proclaim  to  the  world,  with  no  doubt- 
ful sound,  the  unity  and  indissolubility  of  marriage.  In  vain  did 
haughty  kings  and  powerful  emperors  seek  to  make  their  own 
passions  the  sole  standard  of  right,  by  trampling  upon  God's  law ; 
to  them,  as  to  the  humblest  of  their  subjects  did  the  Pope  reply : 
Non  licet, — you  cannot  break  the  bond  which  God  has  tied, — you 
cannot  dismiss  your  lawful  wife.  For  the  sake  of  helpless  women, — 
a  betrayed  or  forsaken  wife,  the  Popes  of  Rome  braved  the  anger 
of  the  most  despotic  tyrants,  and  exposed  themselves  to  the  ter- 
rible vengeance  of  their  disappointed  passions.  Witness  the  strug- 
gle of  the  Pope  against  Philip  Augustus^  when  all  France  was 
laid  under  an  interdict  until  the  king  consented  to  receive  his 
lawful  wife  and  abandon  his  second  sacrilegious  marriage.  History 
tells  of  the  heroic  contest  of  Gregory  VII  against  the  emperor, 
Henry  IV  of  Germany,  in  defence  of  a  wronged  and  banished 
wife.  And  do  you  not  all  kuow  how  Clement  VII  refused  to 
abandon  the  rights  of  Catherine  of  Aragon,  whom  the  lustful  pas- 
sions of  Henry  VIII  Avished  to  discard,  even  though  by  his  refusal 
all  England  should  be  lost  to  the  Church?  But  the  divine  prin- 
ciple of  the  unity  of  marriage  could  not  be  sacrificed,  no  matter 
what  the  consequences  might  be.  During  all  those  ages  the  Ro- 
man Pontiffs  sedulously  guarded  and  bravely  defended  this  fun- 
damental   principle. 

How  differently  the  Reformers  proceeded.  In  England  the  new 
Church  was  built  upon  the  broken  marriage  vows  and  adulterous 
passions  of  a  most  brutal  king.  In  Germany  it  sprang  from  the 
broken  religious  vows  of  disorderly  monks,  and  was  fostered  by 
the  greed  and  lust  of  princes.  Scarcely  had  the  German  Reforma- 
tion begun  when  l)y  an  act  unexampled  amongst  Christians  the 
very  leaders  of  tlie  movement,  Luther  and  Melancthon,  allowed  in 
writing  to  Philip  of  Hesse  that  he  might  have  two  wives  at  the 
same  time  without  even  pretending  to  divorce  the  first.  If  the 
Popes  had  thus  acted  Europe  would  most  certainly  have  lost 
Christian  civilization,  and  would  have  descended  to  the  level  of 
the  barbarous  nations  of  Asia,  degraded  and  demoralized  by  the 
practice  of  polygamy.  If  now  the  Christian  woman  enjoys  so  much 
consideration ;    if    the    name    of    wife    and    mother   be    so    holy   and 


128      SEBMOXS  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

venerable ;  if  the  memories  of  home  be  so  clear  to  the  heart  of 
every  true  man,  it  is  due  to  the  blessed  influence  of  Christian 
marriage. 

But  there  are  agencies  at  work  around  us  that  threaten  to  sap 
and  destroy  this  holy  institution.  The  system  of  divorce  and  the 
laws  establishing  it  in  the  various  States  are  certainly  a  fearful 
danger  to  the  welfare  of  society;  and  all  who  believe  in  God's 
law  as  supreme  above  all  the  laws  of  men,  and  all  who  wish  to 
preserve  our  country  from  moral  ruin  should  seriously  consider 
the  consequences  that  will  necessarily  follow  if  the  sacredness  of 
the  marriage  tie  be  destroyed  or  even  tampered  with. 

For     divorce     destroys     the     unity    of    marriage     and     introduces 
virtual    polygamy    with  many  of   its  worst  consequences.     The  people 
of  this    great    country,   whose    instincts     are    so    generally    Christian, 
hold   in    detestation    the   doctrines   of  Mormonism  and    consider  them 
a   disgrace   and    a    curse     to     the    nation.      Yet   in    what    does    Mor- 
monism    really    differ     from     the     system     of    divorce  ?     Mormonism 
allows    men    to    have   several  wives    at   the    same   time,  while  divorce 
permits    them    one    after   the    other.      Divorce    allows    a    man    to    be 
married    twice,  three    times,  etc.,  no   limit    fixed,  while    the    first  wife 
is    still    living.     In    wliat    does   that    really   differ   from    Mormonism  ? 
It    is  just   as    much  opposed   to    the    real  ends    of    marriage,    to    the 
mutual   love    of  the    married    couple,    and    the    proper    education    of 
children ;    and    it    is    much    more    adapted   to    gratify    the    basest  pas- 
sions, as    it    offers    a   greater    freedom     from    the     embarrassments    of 
open    polygamy.     With    whatever    disgust    then    we    view    the   shame- 
ful   doctrines    of   Mormonism,  with    even    greater    dislike    should    we 
treat    the    question    of  divorce.       For,    as     I     have    just     said,    it    is 
opposed    to    the    natural     ends    of    marriage    and    disturbs    the    laws 
established    by    the    Creator.      It     destroys     the     mutual    love   which 
should    unite     the    liusband     and     wife,    it     develops    all    the     causes 
which    can    lead    to    their   unhappiness,  it    stimulates     the    worst    pas- 
sions   of  our    nature    and    leads    often    to    the    foulest    crimes.     When 
married    persons    know    that    they    are    united    for    good    or    ill    until 
death,    they   will    naturally    cultivate    mutual     love    and     mutual    for- 
bearance ;    they   will   support  each  other's  defects    and    overlook  many 
imperfections.     For    their    own    sake    they    feel    that    tliey    must  over- 
come   many   petty    dislikes    and    make    the    most    of    tlie    good   quali- 
ties   of    their    companions.      Divorce    encourages    these    quarrels   and 


CHRISTIAN  MARRIAGE.  129 

fosters  them.  It  leads  even  to  the  worst  evils.  For  if  a  married 
person  know  that  by  personal  quarrels  or  by  crimes  the  marriage 
can  be  broken,  what  an  inducement  to  foster  dissension  or  to  fall 
into  foul  sins !  Nay,  even  snares  and  pitfalls  are  thus  often  pre- 
pared by  one  of  the  parties  to  entrap  the  unwary  steps  of  the 
other,  in  order  to  have  a  pretext  for  the  dissolution  of  marriage. 
It  is  not  a  very  rare  thing  that  the  husband  should  agree  •  before- 
hand with  the  seducer  to  secure  the  proofs  of  his  wife's  unfaith- 
fulness in  order  to  have  the  right  to  divorce  her.  I  pass  over 
in  silence  many  things ;  the  shocking  revelations  of  the  divorce 
courts  cannot  even  be  alluded  to.  You  can  judge  from  what  I 
have  said  if  divorce  be  not  injurious  to  the  ends  of  marriage. 
The  woman  becomes  degraded  by  such  a  law.  She  is  no  longer 
certain  of  her  position  in  the  household ;  for  under  one  pretext  or 
another  she  can  be  driven  from  her  home. 

It  is  no  longer  even  for  crime  that  divorce  is  granted.  The 
most  frivolous  charges,  the  most  futile  reasons  are  considered  suffi- 
cient in  many  places.  Nay,  even  without  the  knowledge  of  one  of 
the  parties  it  can  be  obtained  by  the  other.  These  causes  are  so 
multiplied  that  in  some  of  our  States  nothing  is  more  easily 
granted.  Hence  we  see  the  rapid  and  fearful  increase  in  the 
number  of  broken  marriages, — and  the  horrible  fact  that  in  many 
places  divorces  come  as  high  as  one  in  every  twelve  or  ten  or 
even  nine  marriages.  Divorce  then  is  simply  a  legalized  prostitu- 
tion ;  and  marriage  itself  no  better  than  a  temporary  •  cohabitation, 
stigmatized  as  a  very  foul  crime  in  all  Christian  lands.  But 
even  this  is  not  the  whole  malice  of  divorce.  It  prevents  tlie 
proper  training  and  education  of  children,  which  is  one  of  the 
essential  ends  of  marriage.  The  true  education  of  the  child  requires 
both  father  and  mother  to  bring  it  to  completion — the  strong 
authority  of  the  father,  and  the  loving  affection  of  the  mother. 
But  where  can  we  get  this  necessary  co-operation  on  the  part 
of  the  parents,  if  divorce  be  permitted?  To  whom  will  the 
child  belong?  AVho  shall  take  charge  of  him  when  father  and 
mother  are  torn  asunder  ?  If  he  be  sufficiently  advanced  in  years, 
he  must  decide  for  himself  Cruel  alternative,  unhappy  decision, 
when  he  has  to  reject  one  or  the  other  parent.  If  he  be  very 
young,  how  heart-rending  this  separation  becomes.  Shall  the  young 
child   be    torn    from    the  frantic   grasp    of  a  broken-hearted,  wretched 


130  SBEJIOXS  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

mother,  driven  from  her  liome  and  her  little  ones  ?  Ah !  you  can 
recall  many  such  scenes ;  our  daily  papers  often  give  us  the  har- 
rowing details.  And  there,  too,  we  read  of  the  desperate  efforts 
of  the  father  to  recover  possession  of  his  children.  But  what  shall 
become  of  the  miserable  children  themselves,  thus  parted  from 
their  natural  guardians  ?  Shall  they  grow  up  in  the  principles  of 
honor  and  integrity,  or  rather  shall  they  not  become  indifferent 
to  all  virtue  ?  And  how  shall  they  regard  in  after  years  the 
parents    who    brought   such    shame   and   ruin    upon    them  ? 

I  have  said  enough,  I  trust,  to  convince  you  of  the  many  evil 
consequences  which  necessarily  flow  from  divorce ;  yet  I  have  not 
enumerated  more  than  a  part.  When  men  break  down  the  bar- 
riers which  God  Himself  has  raised  up  to  curb  the  passions,  no 
one  can  adequately  foresee  the  fearful  havoc  and  widespread  ruin 
produced  when  the  full  torrent  of  these  passions  finds  an  outlet 
for  their  fury.  The  exceptions  allowed  may  at  first  seem  without 
danger,  but  they  soon  create  the  necessity  for  granting  others.  The 
little  rills  soon  swell  into  a  mighty  torrent  that  sweeps  away  every- 
thing in  its  resistless  force.  Just  as  in  some  countries  dykes  and 
banks  have  been  erected  to  prevent  the  waters  of  the  ocean  from 
covering  the  land ;  the  country  is  safe  while  the  dykes  remain 
uninjured.  But  let  a  little  rift  be  made  in  them;  let  the  slightest 
break  occur,  and  little  by  little,  through  the  incessant  action  of  the 
sea,  the  fis'sure  is  widened,  the  breach  is  gradually  enlarged,  until  at 
length  the  full  fury  of  the  angry  w^aters  bursts  through  all  bounds, 
and  then  widespread  ruin  and  devastation  follow,  and  the  land,  with 
all  its  riches  and  beauty,  its  cultivated  plains  and  smiling  gardens, 
is  entirely  submerged.  So  around  society,  for  its  preservation,  the 
Almighty  erected  the  strong  barriers  of  holy  marriage  with  its 
unity  and  indissolubility,  as  the  powerful  safeguards  of  our  best 
interests.  Let  but  a  slight  break  be  made  in  its  binding  force, 
let  but  even  one  exception  be  admitted,  and  very  soon  through 
the  fierce  snrging  of  human  passion, — t'hrough  the  constant  cravings 
of  the  ever  restless  heart  of  man,  the  whole  structure  will  be 
overturned   and    society    be   flooded  with    countless    evils. 

Let  us  then,  dear  brethren,  firmly  hold  that  Christian  marriage 
is  one  and  indissoluble ;  that  it  is  the  union  of  one  man  with 
one  woman  and  forever.  Let  us  firmly  believe  that  this  is  God's 
ordinance    from   the   beginning    of    the    world,    and    that    this   is    the 


CHRISTIAN  MARRIAGE.  131 

law  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  Legislator  of  the  new  Covenant.  For  us 
Catholics  there  can  be  no  hesitation.  It  is  the  doctrine  of  our 
Church.  No  matter  then  what  human  enactments  may  be  framed, — 
no  matter  what  laws  of  divorce  may  be  published, — no  matter 
how  few  or  many — whether  one  or  twenty, — causes  of  divorce  be 
admitted  ia  the  government  of  our  States, — our  duty  is  plain, — 
we  cannot  accept  them  nor  profit  by  them  to  break  a  lawful 
marriage  sanctioned  by  the  Church  of  God.  Our  duty  is  to 
honor  ourselves  this  great  sacrament,  and  to  teach  others  to  prize 
it  by  our  words  and  examples.  Our  duty  is  to  prepare  ourselves 
worthily  for  its  reception  and  to  live  worthily  in  it  after  its 
reception :  to  understand  its  sacredness  and  its  inviolability  when 
we  receive  it,  and  ever  after  by  Christian  lives  manifest  all  the 
true,  blessed  fruits  of  Christian  marriage :  thus  fulfilling  the  words 
of  St.   Paul    cited    in    my  text.     (Eph.  v,    22,    23.) 


^bi^^ir^ti^in  ^f  ^^^$t$. 


SMMOI  OF  RIGHT   REY.  S.  Y.  RYM.  D.D., 

EISHOP   OF   BUFFALO,    K.  Y. 


''And  a  voice  came  out  of  the  cloud,   saying:   This  is  my  beloved  Son  in  whom 
I  am  well  pleased." — St.  Luke,   c.   ix,   v.   35. 

THE  ineffable  mystery  of  the  Incarnation  opens  to  the  eyes  of 
faith  fiithomless  depths  of  love  and  mercy.  "  God  so  loved 
the  world  as  to  give  His  only    begotten  Son."     (John,  iii,    16.) 

We  love  to  gaze  in  spirit  at  the  ravishing  beauty  of  that 
divine  countenance.  We  love  to  contemplate  Jesus,  the  God  Man, 
coming  forth  from  the  throne  of  His  eternity,  clothed  with  all  the 
splendor  of  divinity,  "  the  splendor  of  His  Father's  glory,  the  fig- 
ure of  His  substance,"  and  we  stand  enraptured  with  the  three 
privileged  disciples  on  Mount  Tabor,  where  we  see  Him  trans- 
figured. His  countenance  as  bright  as  the  sun,  His  garments  white 
as  the  driven  snow ;  and  yet,  my  brethren,  it  is  in  His  character  of 
Master,  Teacher  and  Legislator  that  the  Eternal  Father  presents 
Him  to  our  view.  "  Behold  my  beloved  Son  in  whom  I  am  well 
pleased,  luar   ye    Him." 

In  this  character,  then,  we  must  consider  Him.  Jesus  came 
to  be  our  Saviour,  to  teach  to  us  the  truths  of  faith,  to  make 
known  to  us  the  ways  of  eternal  life.  "  I  am  the  way,"  He  says 
of  Himself,  "the  truth  and  the  life."  (John,  xiv,  6.)  "I  am 
come  that  ye  may  have  life,  and  may  have  it  more  abundantly." 
(John,  X,  10.)  "  This  is  eternal  life,  that  they  know  Thee,  the  only 
true  God,  and  Jesus  Christ  whom  Thou  hast  sent."  (John,  xvii,  3.) 
"  If  thou  wouldst  enter  into  life,  keep  the  Commandments."  (Mat., 
xix,  17.)    Thus  Jesus  spoke,  thus  the  well-beloved  Son  of  the  Father 

(132) 


lit.  J!ec.  S.  V.  Ryan   D.D. 


lit.  liev.  E.  P.  mul/iams,  D.D. 


lit.  liev.  L.  i>.  Mcilahon,  D.D.  111.  Rev  Francis  McNeirny,  D.D. 


HI.  Eev,  James  A.  Ileahj,  D.D. 


lit.  Rev.  John  Vet  tin,  D  I), 


lit.  Jlev.  J.  /lademacher,  D.D, 


lit.  Rev,  Thomas  A  Becker.,  D.D, 


THE  OBSERVATION  OF  FEASTS.  133 

taught  all  through  His  public  ministry,  after  His  glorious  resurrection, 
and  even  to  the  clay  "  when,  giving  commandments  by  the  Holy  Ghost 
to  the  Apostles  whom  he  had  chosen.  He  was  taken  up."  (Acts, 
i,  2.)  The  mission  of  Jesus  was  not  to  close  with  His  mortal 
life.  His  office  of  Teacher,  Master  and  Law-giver  was  to  be  per- 
petuated down  through  the  ages.  He  came  to  save  all  men,  and 
"  there  is  no  other  name  under  heaven  whereby  we  can  be  saved 
but  the  name  of  Jesus."  Belief  in  His  revealed  truths  and  obedi- 
ence to  His  laws  are  made  the  essential  conditions  of  salvation. 
"  He  that  believeth  not  shall  be  condemned."  "  If  thou  wouldst 
enter  into  life  keep  the  Commandments,"  These  truths  must  then 
be  taught,  these  Commandments  made  known  and  enforced,  and 
hence  Jesus  bequeaths  His  powers  with  His  divine  mission  to  the 
Apostles.  "As  the  Father  sent  Me,  I  also  send  you.  Going, 
teach  all  nations,  teaching  them  to  observe  all  things  whatsoever 
I  have  commanded  you."  And  thus  Jesus  is  to-day,  in  this  nine- 
teenth century,  as  truly  and  as  certainly  our  Teacher,  Master  and 
Legislator  as  when  from  that  bright  overhanging  cloud  the  Father's 
voice  proclaimed,  "  This  is  My  beloved  Son,  hear  ye  Him."  The 
Church  of  God  was  thus  to  continue  His  mission ;  and  as  her 
mission  was  not  to  invent  new  doctrines,  nor  to  reveal  new 
articles  of  faith,  but  sacredly  and  jealously  to  guard  the  deposit 
of  faith,  unerringly  to  explain  and  interpret  revealed  truth,  and 
infallibly  to  define  faith  and  morals ;  so,  in  like  manner,  her  office 
is  not  to  make  new  commandments,  though  invested  with  all  need- 
ful authority  to  legislate  for  her  children ;  her  office  is  not  to 
impose  new  burdens  on  the  consciences  of  her  children,  but  rather 
to  expound  and  interpret  and  enforce  the  divine  law ;  and  hence 
the  precepts  of  the  Church  are  generally  only  determinations  of 
God's  commandments,  more  explicit,  full  and  detailed  reiterations 
of  what  God's  holy  law  commands.  This  is  obviously  the  case 
in  regard  to  the  commandments  of  the  Church,  to  which  I  have 
been  requested  this  evening  to  direct  your  thoughts,  and  to  which, 
because  of  its  vital  importance,  its  vast  far-reaching  influence 
on  society,  on  the  religious  and  moral  character  of  the  people,  I 
would  most  respectfully  ask  your  serious  attention.  The  first  com- 
mandment of  the  Church  is,  then,  the  sanctification  of  the  Lord's 
day  and  religious  festivals — to  hear  Mass,  and  rest  from  servile 
work    on    Sundays    and    holydays    of  obligation. 


134  SEBMOIIS  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

In  order  not  to  trespass  too  much  on  your  kind  indulgence,  I 
will  try  this  evening  to  confine  myself  to  the  consideration  of  the 
obligation  incumbent  on  all  Christians  of  keeping  the  first  com- 
mandment of  God's  Church  and  the  means  of  observing  it,  the 
grounds  on  which  it  rests,  and  the  duties  which  it  imposes.  Besides 
the  observance  of  the  Sabbath,  under  the  Jewish  dispensation,  other 
festivals  w^ere  by  God's  own  command  to  be  kept  holy,  religious 
rites  and  other  holy  sacrifices  were  prescribed  on  other  days 
besides  the  Sabbath.  So,  also,  from  the  earliest  ages,  the  Chris- 
tian Church  instituted  and  religiously  solemnized  various  feasts, 
differing  in  different  countries,  and  varying  according  to  times  and 
circumstances,  principally  intended  to  keep  in  grateful  and  loving 
memory  the  chief  mysteries  of  our  blessed  Saviour's  life,  the  glories 
and  prerogatives  of  His  immaculate  Mother,  the  example  and  heroic 
sanctity  of  the  saints.  These  religious  festivals  are  often  epochs 
in  our  lives,  hallo^ved  by  sweetest  memories,  to  which  we  look 
forward  W'ith  pleasing  anticipation ;  to  which  we  look  back  with 
unmingled  pleasure.  Blessed  festivals,  they  are  green,  refreshing 
oases  in  the  desert  of  our  dreary,  plodding  life,  and  not  a  doubt, 
but  they  tend  materially  to  keep  alive  the  spirit  of  piety,  to 
impress  more  deeply  on  Christian  souls  the  great  mysteries  of 
religion,  to  serve  as  outposts  to  guard  the  citadel  of  faith ;  and 
hence  we  should  ever  cherish  these  festivals  of  our  Church,  and 
although  I  may  not  stop  now  to  dwell  upon  the  wisdom  of  tlie 
Church  in  instituting  festivals,  more  or  less  directly  connected  with 
the  leading  mysteries  of  faith,  or  to  urge  the  many  pressing 
motives  that  should  impel  dutiful  children  to  be  faithful  in  the 
observance  of  these  religious  holydays,  it  will  suffice  to  say  that 
we  are  bound  under  pain  of  mortal  sin  to  observe  them  as  the 
Church  commands,  in  virtue  of  the  ecclesiastical  precept,  by  hearing 
Mass,  and  resting  from  all  unnecessary  servile  works,  unless  when 
compliance  with  the  precept  would  entail  a  grievous  inconvenience, 
amounting  to  a  physical  or  moral  impossibility. 

Apart  from  the  strict  obligation  of  obedience  to  the  precepts  of 
the  Church,  the  pious  Catholic  will  never  fail  on  them  to  assist 
at  the  offices  of  the  Church,  to  renew  his  fervor  and  rekindle  de- 
votion, and  reap  for  himself  the  rich  harvest  of  grace  and  spiritual 
blessings  attached  to  their  religious  observance.  We  must  ever 
remember    with    St.    Augustine,  "that    no    man    can    have    God    for 


THE  OBSERVATION  OF  FEASTS.  135 

liis  Father  who  has  not  the  Church  for  his  mother."  Obedience 
to  the  Church  is  identical  with  obedience  to  God;  "He  that  hears 
you,  hears  Me." 

The  observance  of  the  precepts  of  the  Churcli  will  be  the  criterion 
of  our  fidelity  to  the  divine  law,  and  this  in  turn  will  be  the  true 
test  and  measure  of  our  love  of  God.  "  If  you  love  Me  keep 
My  Commandments." 

But,  my  dear  brethren,  we  are  principally  concerned  Avitli  the 
•observance  of  the  Sunday,  the  Christian  Sabbath — only  premising 
that  the  general  observance  of  the  Sunday  throughout  the  Chris- 
tian world  is  a  glorious  testimony  to  the  authority  and  traditions 
of  the  Church  of  God — for  only  to  her  authority  and  her  vener- 
able traditions  can  the  Christian  appeal  in  justification  of  the  law 
abrogating  the  Jewish  Sabbath  and  substituting  the  Christian 
Sunday.  Tliis  substitution  implies  not  only  the  abrogation  of  the 
Jewish  Sabbath  day,  but  it  implies  that  the  ancient  provisional 
dispensation  lias  been  replaced  by  the  new  and  more  perfect  law 
of  grace,  that  the  Church  has  supplanted  the  Synagogue,  that 
Christ,  who  came  not  to  destroy  the  law  but  to  fulfill  it,  having 
entered  into  His  rest,  has  become  the  Mediator  of  a  better 
testament,  the  High  Priest  of  the  new  alliance,  and  that  the 
priestliood  of  Aaron  has  been  succeeded  by  the  everlasting  priest- 
hood of  Christ;  that  the  sacrifices  of  the  old  law  have  been 
superseded  by  that  "one  oblation  of  the  body  of  Christ  by  which 
He  hath  perfected  forever  them  that  are  sanctified,"  by  that  one 
pure  and  holy  sacrifice,  which,  according  to  the  prophet,  "  from 
the  rising  of  the  sun  to  the  going  down  thereof  shall  be  offered 
to    the    name    of  the    God   of  Hosts." 

The  Christian  Church,  prescribing  for  Christians  the  observance 
'of  the  Christian  Sabbath  without  trenching  on  the  substance  of 
the  divine  law,  has  made  it  obligatory  upon  us  to  hear  Mass 
and  rest  from  servile  work.  Though  the  observance  of  the  par- 
ticular day  and  the  ceremonial  rites  has  been  altered  and  abrogated, 
the  law  itself  of  keeping  the  Sabbatli  holy  substantially  remains. 
The  obligation  of  observing  this  divine  law  in  substance  and  in 
spirit  has  not  been  and  could  not  be  abolished;  resting  on  the 
imprescriptible  law  of  nature  itself,  it  goes  back  to  a  higher 
source   than   any  mere    positive    enactments. 

Learned   doctors,    and    among    them    the    Angel    of    the    Schools, 


136  SERMONS  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

regard  the  duty  of  observing  a  certain  fixed  day,  recurring  at 
regular  intervals  of  about  seven  days,  as  appertaining  to  the 
moral  law,  imprinted  by  the  Creator's  hand  upon  the  human  soul. 
The  antiquity,  universality  and  unanimity  of  its  observance  by  all 
nations  and  peoples  and  tribes  and  tongues,  from  the  cradle  of 
the  human  race  to  our  own  day,  prove  it  rooted  in  our  very  being, 
flowing  from  the  first  principles  of  reason,  born  of  primitive 
instincts,  and  consequently  the  obligation  of  observing  it  we  can 
neither  ignore  nor  repudiate.  To  this  law  of  nature  was  super- 
added a  positive  command  of  God  even  before  the  written  tablets 
were  given  on  Sinai's  Mount.  Even  anterior  to  the  patriarchal 
times  the  Sabbath  was  kept  holy.  From  creation's  dawn,  when 
the  morning  stars  sang  together  and  the  sons  of  God  made  joyful 
melody  in  praise  of  their  Maker,  the  voice  of  man  was  attuned 
to  the  music  of  the  spheres,  praising  the  Eternal  in  thanksgiving 
for  the  great  benefit  of  creation,  commemorating  the  Maker's  rest 
from    His   work. 

This  divine  ordinance  thus  imprinted  on  the  heart  of  man, 
thus  universally  recognized  and  observed,  received  an  additional 
sanction,  a  new  promulgation  amid  the  thunders  of  Mount  Sinai, 
and  became,  as  it  were,  divinely  and  indestructibly  stereotyped 
when  the  finger  of  God  sculptured  in  stone  the  command, 
"  Remember    thou    keep    holy   the    Sabbath    day." 

Thus  this  divine  Commandment  comes  to  us  with  holiest  sanc- 
tions, and  this  law  of  God  our  Maker,  our  Master,  our  Sovereign 
Lord,  who  can  claim  the  homage  of  our  whole  lives,  and  to  whom 
all  our  days  and  years  belong  on  the  title  of  creation,  so  unde- 
niably sacred  in  its  origin,  so  variously  promulgated,  so  divinely 
sanctioned,  it  were  surely  a  grievous  sin  to  disobey. 

To  this  law  the  Church  of  God  has  added  a  new  consecration. 
In  the  Christian  disi)ensation  the  Christian  Sabbath  commemorates 
a  work  infinitely  transcending  the  material  creation — the  work  of 
redemption  consummated  and  crowned  by  the  resurrection  of  Jesus, 
sealed  by  the  pentecostal  advent  of  the  divine  Spirit ;  and  there- 
fore the  Church  adds  her  sanction  to  the  law  inaugurating  her 
work  of  saving  souls  made  in  the  image  of  God,  redeemed  by 
Christ,  sanctified  by  His  Holy  Spirit,  and  thus  consecrating  to 
the  ever  adorable  Trinity  a  day  already  on  so  many  titles  sacred.. 
Whether,    then,  we    consider    the    authority    which    commands    it    or 


THE  OBSERVATION  OF  FEASTS.  137 

the  glorious  mysteries  clustering  around  and  hallowing  it,  we 
cannot  fail  to  realize  the  sacredness  of  the  day  therein  blessed  and 
the  obligation    of  keeping   it   holy. 

Well,  then,  may  we  repeat  that  this  law  of  sanctifying  the 
Sunday  conies  to  us  with  the  very  highest  and  holiest  sanctions — 
the  law  of  nature  dictates  it,  primordial  revelation  enjoins  it,  the 
positive  law  of  God  prescribes  it,  the  ecclesiastical  law  commands 
it.  But  this  obligation  is  incumbent  on  society  as  well  as  on 
individuals.  That  is,  man,  not  only  as  an  individual  person,  but 
as  a  member  of  society,  must  pay  homage  to  God.  It  does  not 
suffice  to  praise  God  in  private ;  we  must  worship  God  in  public. 
Deists  as  well  as  Christian  doctors  teach  that  the  obligation  of 
public  worship,  of  worshiping  God  in  public,  and  not  merely  in 
private,  is  of  the  very  essence  of  the  law  of  nature.  Hence  w'e 
find  that  this  unalterable  law  of  consecrating  one  day  in  the  w^eek 
to  the  public  worship  of  God,  Christian  society  has  everywhere 
recognized  and  enforced,  and  so  from  earliest  Apostolic  times  the 
observance  of  the  Sunday  became  of  civil  as  well  as  ecclesiastical 
precept. 

Civil  rulers  in  all  Christian  lands,  following  the  lead  of  the 
first  Christian  emperor,  have  accepted,  sanctioned  and  enforced  the 
universal  ordinance  of  God's  Church,  and,  therefore,  besides  all 
this  solemn  sanction  already  mentioned,  the  sanctification  of  the 
Sunday  has  the   sanction   of  the  civil  law. 

This  brings  us  at  length  to  the  second  most  important,  because 
most  practical,  consideration :  How  are  we  as  Christians  bound  to 
sanctify  the  Christian  Sabbath?  The  authority  tliat  has  transferred  to 
the  Sunday  its  binding  obligation  is  unquestionably  the  best  quali- 
fied to  determine  the  nature,  conditions  and  extent  of  the  obligation 
imposed,  and  therefore,  though  ours  is  not  a  Jewish  or  a  Puritan 
Sabbath,  it  Avere  a  great  mistake,  it  were  indeed  a  pernicious 
error  to  suppose  that  the  Catholic  Church  could  sanction,  connive 
at,  or  in  any  way  be  made  responsible  for  the  sinful  desecration  of 
the  Sunday  by  those  who  set  at  defiance  the  law  of  God  and  her 
own  solemn  injunction,  declaring  the  Sunday  holy,  prescribing  for 
its  due  observance  not  only  rest  from  servile  work,  but  attend- 
ance at  divine  worship — the  holy  Mass. 

Whilst  we  can  have  no  sympathy  with  the  gloomy,  cheerless 
and    fanatical    spirit   that   would   take    all    the    sunshine    and    joyous- 


138  si:emojvs  of  the  third  plenary  council. 

ness  out  of  a  day  commemorating  events  that  make  every  Chris- 
tian soul  thrill  with  religious  joy,  a  day  gladdened  by  the  glory 
and  triumph  of  the  risen  Saviour,  a  day  made  bright  by  the 
advent  of  the  spirit  of  light  and  life  coming  to  irradiate  the 
Christian  world,  and  to  inflame  all  Christian  hearts,  yet  we  must 
say  that  we  rejoice  exceedingly  to  see  the  general  observance  of 
the  Sunday  in  our  cherished  land,  and  we  congratulate  our  fellow- 
■citizens  of  all  religious  denominations  at  this  evidence  of  Chrisianity 
and  this  glorious  tribute  to  Christian  faith. 

"We  devoutly  hope  and  we  fervently  pray  that  our  fellow-citizens 
of  all  religious  denominations  may  ever  jealously  guard  this  point 
of  revealed  faith,  and  that  the  spirit  and  the  law  of  our  land 
may  ever  be  in  harmony,  as  it  is  now,  with  the  spirit  of  the 
Church  and  the  laAV  of  God.  Catholics,  surely,  who  recognize  the 
Church  as  the  spouse  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  organ  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  the  divinely  commissioned  interpreter  of  God's  holy  law,  the 
infallible  teacher  of  faith  and  morals,  can  have  no  excuse  for  the 
profanation  of  a  day  which  she  commands  her  children  to  keep 
holy.  To  spend  in  dissipation,  riotous  excesses,  debauchery  or 
sinful  indulgence  the  day  consecrated  to  God  and  claimed  by  Him, 
on  so  many  titles,  were  indeed  a  crime,  a  sacrilege,  and  an  out- 
rage on  public  morality.  No  wonder,  then,  that  zealous  pastors, 
holy  Popes,  Provincial  and  Plenary  Councils  should  most  earnestly 
exhort  the  faithful  to  fidelity  in  the  observance  of  the  Sunday ; 
no  wonder  that  they  should  raise  their  voices,  and,  in  sharp,  clear 
and  ringing  tones,  denounce  abuses  by  which  the  Sunday  is  pro- 
faned, God  robbed  of  the  homage  due  Him,  faith,  "  that  cometh 
by  hearing,"  imperiled,  the  Word  of  God  neglected,  the  public 
conscience  debauched  and  society  demoralized.  Religion  reprobates 
these  scandalous  abuses,  and  all  good  men,  irrespective  of  religious 
.creed  or  political  affinity,  should  frown  down  the  attempt  to  change 
the  religious  Sabbath  rest  of  the  Lord's  day  into  public  carousing 
by  the  unrestricted  sale  and  excessive  use  of  intoxicating  drink, 
by  promiscuous  excursions,  picnics  and  other  similar  demoralizing 
public  nuisances. 

Whilst,  then,  we  would  enter  a  solemn  protest  against  the 
growing  tendency  of  assimilating  the  Sunday  to  the  ordinary  week 
days,  and  thus  forcing  the  laboring  classes,  the  poor  but  noble  sons 
of  toil,  to    forego    on    the    Sunday   needed    rest    of    mind   and    body, 


THE  OBSERVATION  OF  FEASTS.  139 

robbing  them  of  needed  relaxation,  which  the  law  of  nature  and 
nature's  God,  as  well  as  the  law  of  God's  holy  Church,  legiti- 
matizes and  approves — to  fulfill  a  duty  of  conscience  in  the  in- 
terest of  religion  and  morality,  and  for  the  honor  of  our  holy 
mother  Church,  we  must  raise  our  voice  against  a  still  more 
crying  evil,  and  abuse  more  to  be  deprecated,  that  of  making  an 
exception  in  favor  of  Sunday  commerce  in  intoxicating  drink,  thus 
making  this  a  privileged  traffic,  and  those  engaged  in  it  a  favored 
class,  while  imposing  restrictions  on  and  prohibiting  on  the  Sun- 
day all  other  honest  trades,  all  other  honorable  avocations  by  which 
men  gain  their  livelihood.  This,  we  fear,  would  be  to  invite  the 
profanation  of  the  Lord's  day,  to  expose  our  good  people,  and 
especially  the  young,  to  dangerous  occasions;  in  a  word,  to  open 
such  places  of  business  on  the  Sunday,  just  as  on  the  ordinary 
week  day,  is  to  put  a  premium  on  the  sale  of  liquor,  to  encourage 
the  vice  of  intemperance,  and  open  an  avenue  to  licentious  ex- 
cesses of  all  kinds  on  the  Sunday.  This  no  Christian  community 
could  tolerate ;  this  no  man  who  loves  his  country  or  his  kind 
will  sanction ;  this  the  Catholic,  who  has  the  honor  of  his  Church 
and  the  salvation  of  souls  at  heart,  must  reprobate.  Catholics, 
distinguished,  as  they  confessedly  are,  for  the  religious  observance 
of  the  Sunday,  should  tolerate  nothing  that  has  even  the  appear- 
ance of  evil,  or  that  might  appear  to  bring  a  stain  on  the  fair 
name  of  their  holy  Church.  And  think  not,  dear  brethren,  that  in 
thus  enforcing  the  sanctification  of  the  Sunday  we  are  innovating; 
think  not  that  it  is  only  the  pastors  and  the  Popes  and  the  councils 
of  to-day  that  insist  on  the  strict  religious  observance  of  the  Sun- 
day; believe  not  that  this  is  an  invention  of  narrow-minded  fanaticism 
or  bigoted  Puritanism.  Such  legislation  is  thoroughly  Catholic,  it 
breathes  the  very  spirit  of  Christianity,  and  the  Church  from  the 
earliest  ages  has  insisted  upon  the  stringent  and  religious  observance 
■of  the  Sunday.  From  the  earliest  ages  pastors  of  the  Church  and 
civil  magistrates  were  at  one,  acted  in  concert  in  enforcing  the  ob- 
servance of  the  Christian  Sabbath.  At  the  solicitation  of  bishops  of 
the  Church  laws  were  enacted  by  the  Roman  emperors  protecting 
the  faithful  against  scandalous  and  criminal  diversions  on  the  Lord's 
day,  and  in  the  year  425  the  Council  of  Carthage  petitioned 
the  Emperor  Theodosius  to  protect  tlie  people  against  similar 
abuses.     The  great  St.  Charles  Borromeo,  the  ter-ceutennial  of  whose 


140  SEEJIONS  OF  THE  THIRD  PLEXARY  COUXCIL. 

blessed  death,  in  unison  -with  the  whole  Christian  world,  we  cele- 
brated but  a  few  days  before  the  opening  of  our  council,  in  at 
least  two  of  his  famous  Councils  of  jNIilan,  positively  declares  that 
sotting  in  taverns  and  ale-houses  on  Sundays  and  festivals  is  a  most 
criminal  and  scandalous  sin.  A  Council  of  Cologne  in  1536  orders 
taverns  to  be  closed,  and  no  riotous  or  excessive  drinking  on  Sun- 
day to  be  tolerated.  In  1557  a  Council  of  Paris  ordained  the 
same  in  almost  identical  terms.  Thus  we  find  that  the  Church 
of  God,  from  the  very  commencement,  has  insisted  mo^  urgently  on 
the  avoidance  of  those  things  that  are  calculated  to  scandalize 
others,  or  may  become  a  source  of  danger  and  of  sin  to  her  own 
children,  and  in  doing  so  she  has  but  interpreted  and  enforced 
the  divine  law,  "  Remember  thou  keep  holy  the  Sabbath  day,"  and 
faithfully  expressed  the  mind  and  will  and  law  of  Jesus  Christ, 
who  declares  that  "  He  came  not  to  destroy  the  lav/  but  to  fulfill 
it,"    to  perfect  it,  to  Christianize  it. 

For  the  unsought  and  unexpected  honor  of  being  able  during- 
this  great  Plenary  Council  of  ours  to  raise  my  humble  voice  ta 
plead  for  the  strict  observance  of  a  law  of  our  holy  Church, 
wliich  we  hold  to  be  of  the  last  importance,  for  the  preservation 
of  the  faith,  for  the  growth  of  the  Church  and  the  prosperity  of 
religion  in  these  United  States,  I  am  most  thankful.  To  spend 
the  Sunday  in  sinful  dissipation  and  scandalous  profanation  is  a 
sacrilege,  an  insult  to  God,  on  a  day  by  Himself  called  holy ;  it 
is,  too,  an  outrage  on  Christian  morals,  whose  tendency  is  to 
blunt  the  moral  sense  of  the  community  and  destroy  the  last 
remaining  vestige  of  respect  for  revealed  religion  and  Christian 
faith.  It  begets  a  spirit  of  lawlessless  and  contempt  for  all 
authority — civil,  ecclesiastical  and  divine — enjoining  the  observance 
of  the  Sunday,  and  hence  it  is  a  loosening  of  the  very  foundation 
of  society ;  and,  therefore,  it  behooves  all  good  men  who  have 
the  interest  of  society  and  religion  at  heart,  to  pause  and  reflect 
whither  this  growing  disregard  for  the  sacredness  of  the  Christian 
Sabbath  is  leading  us.  For  Catholics,  however,  it  is  not  enough 
that  the  Sunday  should  not  be  a  day  of  sin  and  sacrilege  and 
a  Sabbath  of  Satan ;  it  must  not  be  a  day  of  idleness  and  sloth 
and  a  Sabbath  of  the  brute  irrational  beasts ;  it  must  in  reality 
be  a  holy  day,  sanctified  by  the  holy  observance  wliich  the  Church 
commands,  and    did    time  permit  I   would  fain  dwell  a  few  moments 


THE  OBSERVATION  OF  FEASTS.  141 

upon  that  holy  Mass  which  we  are  bound  to  hear,  and  which 
the  Church  prescribes  in  order  to  sanctify  the  Sunday.  I  can, 
my  dear  brethren,  only  call  your  attention  to  the  fact  that  this 
holy  Mass  gives  to  God  true  divine  homage,  fulfills  all  the  ends 
of  sacrifice,  enables  man  to  discharge  the  obligations  of  adoration, 
thanksgiving,  propitiation  and  supplication  which  he  owes  to  God, 
and  thus  the  pure  oblation,  foretold  by  the  prophet,  supersedes 
all  the  ancient  sacrifices,  and  becomes  the  source  of  blessing  and 
of  heavenly  grace    to    the    Christian   world. 

Let  us  then,  my  dear  brethren,  faithfully  keep  the  Sunday 
holy;  it  is  truly  the  Lord's  day;  let  us  then  consecrate  the  day, 
and  not  simply  a  half  hour  of  it  but  the  whole  day,  as  far  as 
possible,  to  Him  to  whom  it  belongs,  in  the  spirit  of  Christian 
faith  and  Catholic  piety,  according  to  the  prescriptions  of  the 
Church  of  God,  and  thereby  give  glory  to  God,  edification  to  our 
neighbor,    and    bring   grace    and    salvation    to    our    own    souls. 


^»itft  mt\  %tum, 


SERMOI  OF  EiaHT  REY.  J.  1.  WATTERSOI,  D.D.„ 


BISHOP   OF    COLUMBUS 


THE  subject  assigned  to  me  by  the  Most  Rev.  Apostolic  Dele- 
gate, "  The  Education  of  the  Laity,"  was  a  very  congenial  one 
to  me ;  but,  as  much  of  my  ground  was  covered  by  his  Lordship 
of  Peoria  in  the  discourse  you  listened  to  last  night,  it  has  been 
suggested  to  me  to  change  my  theme.  I  trust,  that  what  I  will 
therefore  say  to  you  this  evening  on  another  topic  will  be  neither 
uninteresting  nor  uninstructive,  especially  in  these  days  of  ration- 
alism and  naturalism,  in  which  religion  seems  to  consist  in  giving 
as  much  as  possible  to  man,  and  as  little  as  possible  to  Almighty 
God. 

A  great  number  of  persons,  particularly  young  persons,  are 
governed  by  fashion  in  the  formation  of  their  opinions.  Some, 
without  any  pains  to  form  opinions  for  themselves  at  all,  allow 
their  language  and  outward  actions  to  take  their  form  and  coloring 
from  those  with  whom  they  associate.  Many  a  young  man  has 
been  fool  enough  to  say,  not  in  his  heart,  but  with  his  lips, 
"  there  is  no  truth  in  revelation,"  because  he  hoped  to  gain  eclat 
by  the  bold  impiety  of  his  language.  Many  another,  without 
knowledge,  without  examination,  without  reflection,  has  scoffed  at 
all  belief  in  miracles  and  mysteries,  in  order  to  win  the  name 
of  thinking  for  himself  and  bowing  to  no  authority,  but  that  of 
his  own  individual  reason.  Irreligion  is  fashionable,  and  therefore 
contagious.  Incredulity  is  tempting,  as  the  shortest  Avay  to  a  very 
pitiful  kind  of  Ingersollian  distinction.  This  evil,  the  bad  legacy 
of  three  hundred   and  fifty   years    of  disputation,    doubt    and    denial 

(142) 


HI.  Rev.  \Vm.  Geo.  McVtoskey,  D.D. 


Kt.  R'ev.  F.  Jamsens,  D.D. 


m.liev.  W.  M.  \Mrjger,D.D. 


ml^mr^ 

at.  Rev.  John  V.  Neraz,  D.V. 

^H^"  :^!^H 

B 

Rt.  Rev.  Henry  Cosgrove,  D.D. 


Rt.  Rev.  11.  p.  NoHhrop,  D.D. 


m.  Rev.  N.  A.  aaUafjkti\  D.D. 


Rt.  Rec.  J>.  Manuoj,  D.D. 


Rt.  Rev.  V.  1'.  Maes,  D.D, 


FAITH  AND  REASON.  14S 

in  religious  matters,  is  not  yet  completely  exorcised.  This  anti- 
Christian  spirit,  though  often  rebuked,  is  not  yet  banished.  A  long 
period  must  elapse,  before  the  world  will  see  again  what  has  been 
briefly,  but  happily,  described  as  an  age  of  faith,  an  age  in  which 
all  the  civilized  nations  of  the  earth  will  form  a  Christendom 
once  more ;  when  all  Avill  be  united  in  the  belief  of  the  same 
religious  truths  and  in  the  bonds  of  a  common  Christian  charity 
and  a  common  Christian  brotherhood.  We  may  salute  that  blessed 
epoch  from  afar ;  we  may  long  for  its  advent,  and  each  one  in 
his  own  way  and  measure  do  something  to  hasten  its  return ;  but 
no  one  of  us  may  reasonably  hope  to  witness  its  arrival,  and  then 
sink  to  rest  in  peace  with  the  nimo  dimittis  on  his  lips :  "  Now 
dost  Thou  dismiss  Thy  servant,  O  Lord,  in  peace,  because  mine 
eyes  have  seen  Thy  salvation."  But  it  seems  to  me,  that  we  are 
advancing  towards  it.  The  spirit  of  doubt  and  denial  has  nearly 
run  its  course ;  and  it  is  time  for  the  human  mind,  worn  and 
desolate  with  its  long  and  weary  flight  over  the  ocean  of  uncer- 
tainty, to  return  to  the  ark  of  salvation,  which  is  its  only 
resting-place.  The  idolatry  of  reason,  of  man's  individual  reason, 
must  succumb  at  last,  like  the  old  pagan  idolatries,  to  the  divine 
authority    of  faith. 

Attempting  to  show  you  this  evening  the  utter  inadequacy  of 
reason,  whether  as  a  substitute  for  faith,  or  as  the  judge  and 
arbiter  of  faith,  I  have  not  the  slightest  fear,  that  I  will  lay 
myself  open  to  the  charge  of  being  an  enemy  of  reason.  To  the 
right  use  of  reason  I  am  not  opposed.  To  reason  herself  I  can 
have  no  hostility.  In  fact  I  am  going  to  appeal  to  reason 
throughout  the  course  of  my  observations.  It  is  the  abuse  of 
a  good  thing,  it  is  the  idolatry  of  reason,  that  I  oppose;  and 
it  is  a  most  criminal  abuse  of  reason  to  attempt  to  substitute 
her  teachings  for  the  revelation  of  Almighty  God,  or  to  make  her 
the  judge    of  Him    and    of  His    infallible    declarations. 

There  is  a  philosophy,  which,  fixing  itself  on  the  firm  basis 
of  revelation,  so  far  as  religion  and  morals  are  concerned,  is  con- 
tent with  hunting  arguments  and  illustrations  from  history,  analogy 
and  experience,  in  fiivor  of  the  truths  which  it  reveres.  It  knows 
full  well  that  the  supernatural  is  far  above  the  sphere  of  its  con- 
tracted powers ;  that  its  true  province  is  the  wide  field  of  nature, 
in   which   it   has    room    enough    to    expatiate   and   employ   in   fruitful 


144      SERMONS  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

researcli  its  principles  of  natural  science,  which  would  only  be 
misapplied,  if  brought  to  bear  upon  the  supernatural.  It  is  no 
iiireverent  scrutinizer  of  majesty ;  it  does  not  strive,  with  rash 
and  impious  hand,  to  lift  the  veil  of  mystery,  but,  approaching 
the  sanctuary  of  God,  the  Holy  of  Holies,  it  bows  in  humble 
adoration  before  His  throne,  and  acknowledges  His  supreme  au- 
thority.    This    is    the    right    use    of  reason ;    this   is   true  philosophy. 

But  there  is  another  philosophy,  which,  professing  not  only 
ignorance,  but  also  disbelief  of  all  revealed  truth,  undertakes  to 
give  us  the  speculations  of  pure,  unaided  reason,  as  all-sufficient 
to  guide  us  through  this  life  and  prepare  us  for  the  next ;  and 
this  is  the  substitute  which  is  kindly  offered  us  for  that  religion, 
which  has  civilized  and  reformed,  enlightened  and  blessed  mankind. 
Now,  my  dear  brethren,  it  cannot  be  wrong  to  examine  what 
titles  to  our  respect  and  confidence  are  possessed  by  this  bold 
pretender ;  what  certain  truths  requiring  our  belief,  what  lessons 
of  wisdom  to  be  reduced  to  practice,  have  been  taught  or  can 
be  taught   by   this    mere   philosophy   of  reason. 

The  most  important  and  deeply  interesting  questions  to  the 
human  mind  are  those  which  concern  the  nature,  attributes  and 
providence  of  God,  our  relations  with  Him  and  our  duty  towards 
Him,  our  origin,  tlie  purpose  of  our  present  existence,  our  future 
destiny  and  the  causes  of  the  evils  which  surround  us.  These 
are  the  great  problems  Avhich  reason  has  tried  to  solve  from  the 
very  dawn  of  history  to  the  present  day.  Now,  what  progress  had 
she  made  towards  a  right  solution  of  any  one  of  them  ?  Can  it 
be  shown  that  of  herself  she  ever  discovered  one  single,  solitary 
truth  regarding  even  one  of  them  ?  On  the  contrary,  is  it  not 
certain  to  a  demonstration,  that  she  has  fldlen  into  the  most 
serious  errors  on  each  and  every  one  of  them  ?  Every  scholar 
will  admit,  that  the  wisest  and  best  of  the  philosophers  of  pagan 
antiquity  did  but  little  credit  to  reason  by  their  researches  into 
these  matters.  Their  ignorance  and  blindness  surprise  us ;  their 
degrading  errors  seem  to  us  almost  inconceivable.  Yet  it  must  be 
observed,  that  while  the  mistakes  and  absurdities,  which  abound  in 
their  speculations,  are  their  own,  whatever  fragments  of  truth  may 
be  found  amid  their  masses  of  error  are  just  as  certainly  not  their 
own,  are  not  discoveries  of  reason,  but  vestiges  of  revelation.  It 
is    one    thing    for    reason    to    discover    a  '  truth,    and    quite    another 


FAITH  AND  REASON.  145 

tiling  to  recognize  the  form  and  lineaments  of  truth  in  that  which 
is  proposed  to  her  as  such.  We  would  laugh  at  the  silly  arro- 
gance of  the  man  who  would  pretend  to  have  discovered  the 
propositions  of  Euclid  or  the  theory  of  Newton,  merely  because  he 
believed  in  them  and  could  repeat  their  demonstrations. 

Reason  herself,  though  unenlightened  by  revelation,  cannot  deny, 
on  the  contrary,  must  admit  as  a  probability  at  least,  that  our 
Creator,  at  the  very  origin  of  our  race,  may  have  manifested 
.something  of  His  wisdom,  power  and  goodness  to  His  rational 
and  therefore  responsible  creatures,  may  have  prescribed  their 
duties  to  Him  and  to  each  other  by  imposing  laws  upon  them ; 
may  have  held  out  to  them  the  hope  of  rewards  and  the  fear 
of  punishments  hereafter.  Now,  this  is  precisely  what  we  know 
to  have  been  done  on  the  testimony  of  the  inspired  writings, 
which  give  us  an  authentic  account  of  the  facts,  and  are  corrob- 
orated by  all  the  monuments  and  traditions  of  our  race.  I  read 
a  book  some  time  ago,  called  "La  Bible  saiis  la  Bible/'  ("The  Bible 
without  the  Bible,")  written  by  the  Abbe  Gainet,  in  which  he 
shows  that,  even  though  the  records  of  the  ancient  Testament  had 
perished,  all  the  salient  facts  that  are  chronicled  in  the  book  of 
Genesis  regarding  the  general  welfare  of  our  race,  would  be  sub- 
stantially known  to  us  from  the  monumental  and  traditionary 
history  of  the  various  nations  of  the  globe.  The  dogmas  of  the 
existence  of  the  Creator  and  Ruler  of  the  universe,  the  necessity 
of  sacrifice,  priesthood  and  religious  worship  generally,  the  immor- 
tality of  the  soul,  future  rewards  and  punishments,  and  the  fall 
and  promised  restoration  of  our  race,  were  not  the  fruits  of 
philosophic  inquiry.  Revealed  by  the  Almighty  to  our  first  parents, 
to  be  transmitted  to  all  their  descendants,  found  among  the  most 
rude  and  barbarous  as  well  as  the  most  civilized  and  refined 
nations  of  tlie  ancient  world,  they  were  the  common  inheritance 
of  the  human  race,  the  traditionary  religion  of  mankind.  In  the 
course  of  time,  however,  that  same  neglect  and  indifference,  which 
are  still  exhibited  by  so  many,  and  to  which  every  man  is  liable, 
if  he  is  not  faithful  to  the  grace  of  God,  the  power  of  passion 
and  vice  to  darken  the  mind,  and  the  pride  of  reason  exercised 
about  things  entirely  above  her  sphere  of  comprehension,  gradually 
so  dimmed  and  weakened  the  remembrance  of  these  great  truths 
of    primitive    revelation,    blended    with    them    so    many    errors     and 

10 


146  SERMONS  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

absurdities,  and  engrafted  so  many  superstitions  on  them,  that  the- 
fair  image  of  trutli  was  barely  to  be  recognized  in  the  monstrous 
systems  of  polytheism  and  idolatry,  which  prevailed  in  every  nation 
but  one  of  the  ancient  world,  and  which  still  prevail,  wherever 
the  Christian  revelation  is  not  yet  received.  Look,  for  example,, 
at  China  and  Japan.  It  is  the  boast,  that  their  books  and  public 
schools  antedate  Christianity  itself.  They  are  intellectually  cultivated 
and  commercially  prosperous,  and  have  been  so  for  centuries  and 
centuries.  Their  philosophy  has  been  studied  with  interest  by 
keen  observers,  and  yet  with  all  their  enterprise  and  culture,  they 
are  still  groping  in  the  darkness  and  groveling  in  the  filth  of 
the    most   abominable    idolatry. 

The  philosophers  of  the  Grecian  States  and  of  the  Roman 
Empire  were  certainly  men  of  the  highest  genius  and  ability. 
While  the  world  lasts,  the  monuments  they  have  left  us  will  bear 
witness  to  their  herculean  and  collossal  powers  of  mind.  Indeed 
it  is  claimed,  that  the  human  intellect,  in  point  of  natural  reason,, 
attained  its  highest  excellence  in  the  old  pagan  days.  The  heathen 
philosophers  were  acute,  subtle,  earnest,  eager,  energetic,  persevering 
in  their  search  for  truth.  They  devoted  themselves,  body  and 
soul,  heart  and  mind,  to  moral,  metaphysical  and  theological 
investigations.  In  their  ardent  inquiries  they  could  discern  absurd- 
ity and  folly  in  the  religion  which  they  practiced ;  and  by  visiting- 
in  person,  or  collecting  the  reports  of  travellers  who  had  visited 
the  East,  they  occasionally  caught  some  echoes  of  the  faith  of  a 
chosen  and  separate  people,  who  worshiped  one  only  God  in 
spirit  and  in  truth.  And  yet,  with  all  their  adv'antages,  they 
were  only  groping  in  the  dark ;  and  their  own  conclusions  were 
so  far  from  satisfying  their  minds,  from  appeasing  the  mighty 
hunger  of  their  souls,  that  we  find  them  all  confessing  their 
doubts,  uncertainty  and  ignorance,  and  some  of  them  openly 
declaring  that  reason  had  utterly  failed,  that  philosophy  could  not 
enlighten  them,  that  there  was  no  hope  for  man  but  in  a  revela- 
tion from  above.  They  never  dreamed  of  reforming  the  popular 
religions  of  their  respective  countries.  They  might  as  well  have 
attempted  to  command  the  tempest,  chain  the  winds  or  check  the 
tides ;  for,  supposing  them  to  have  had  what  they  unquestionably 
had  not,  tlic  will  to  sacrifice  themselves  in  such  a  cause,  and 
the   power    to    force    un2)alatable    truths    upon    unwilling   multitudes,. 


FAITH  AND  REASON.  147 

who  were  ready  to  stone  or  burn  them  for  their  pains,  they  had 
no  truths  to  teach,  no  doctrines  which  they  firmly  believed,  even 
on  the  first  and  what  are  sometimes  called  the  fundamental  points. 
They  had  done  what  man,  left  to  himself  in  this  dark  world, 
could  do  to  arrive  at  truth.  We  know  the  state  of  their  minds, 
the  extent  of  their  knowledge  and  their  ignorance ;  for  their  opin- 
ions are  recorded  in  their  writings ;  and  we  confidently  summon 
them  as  witnesses  to  prove  the  utter  insufficiency  of  reason  to 
guide    us    through    this    life    or    prepare    us    for    the    next. 

Let  us  select  one  or  two  of  tlie  questions,  which  are  obvi- 
ously most  important  and  Avould  necessarily  claim  the  first  atten- 
tion ;  for  example,  the  doctrine  of  God,  Creator  of  all  things. 
This  tenet  was  originally  revealed,  and  was  always  believed  by 
those  who  retained  that  pristine  revelation.  By  arguing  from  effect 
to  cause  they  were  able  to  reason  out  the  existence  of  God  Avith 
the  natural  power  of  intellect  alone ;  but  the  proper  attribute  of 
creative  power  was  too  great,  too  vast  for  the  comprehension  of 
unaided  reason ;  and  that  pure,  simple  and  sublime  idea  of  om- 
nipotence, which  the  Israelite  and  Christian  acquire  in  childhood, 
never  entered  the  minds  of  the  wisest  sages  of  antiquity.  To 
create  is  to  make  out  of  nothing,  to  draw  into  being  from  no 
being,  from  a  state  of  possibility  to  actual  existence  without  any 
pre-existing  materials  whatsoever.  Now,  reason  by  herself  could 
not  conceive  how  anything  could  be  created  in  the  proper  sense 
of  that  term.  Matter  exists ;  therefore  it  must  have  existed  from 
all  eternity.  It  might  be  shaped  or  fashioned  into  diiferent  forms, 
differently  combined,  variously  modified,  as  it  is  on  a  small  scale 
by  the  hand  of  man,  or  the  machinery  of  man's  invention;  but 
drawn  from  nothing !  called  into  being  by  the  fiat  of  Almighty 
will !  reason  by  her  own  efforts  never  reached  this  sublime,  but 
now  familiar  belief.  This  may  seem  to  some  a  purely  speculative 
question ;  but  there  are  practical  consequences  of  the  highest  mo- 
ment, resulting  from  the  utter  failure  of  reason  to  realize  the 
truth  of  a  God  Creator.  For,  according  to  any  system  of  phi- 
losophy or  to  any  religion,  save  that  revealed  to  us,  God  was 
not  regarded  as  the  Creator  of  man  in  the  proper  sense  of  that 
term;  and  man,  therefore,  did  not  look  upon  himself  as  the 
creature  of  God.  He  did  not  owe  his  existence  to  God,  but  at 
most    his    form    and    mode    of    being.     This    is    evident    from    the 


148  SEBMOI^S  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL 

old    pagan    fables    concerning    the    origin    of    man.     He     could    not, 
therefore,    call    God   his    Father.     He    knew    not   whether    the    Deity 
cared    for    him    or    not.     He    might    fear    His    superior    power,  but 
he    could    not    love    Him.     The    idea    of  loving    Him    never    entered 
his    mind.     Having    read    a    good    many    of    the    pagan    writings,   I 
confidently   assert    to-night,    that,    in    the    whole    range    of    the    Greek 
and    Latin    classics,    there    is    not    a    phrase    to     show    that    the     first 
and   greatest   Commandment,    "  Thou    shalt  love   the   Lord,   thy   God, 
with    thy    whole    heart,    and   with  thy    whole    soul,  and   with    all  thy 
strength,    and     all     thy    mind,"     was     ever     thought     of    by    them. 
And    looking   at    the    evils,    to    which    he    was    subject,    the    miseries 
of    that    condition,    in    which    the    Deity    had    placed    him,    and    the 
apparent    moral    disorder     of    the     world,    man     could     scarcely   feel 
that    he    owed    either    gratitude  or    love    to  a    Supreme    Being,  whom 
he   did    not    know    as    his    Creator    and    his    Father.     No,    my   dear 
brethren,    in    all   the    loftiest    flights    that    philosophy    ever    took,    she 
was    never    able    to   reach   the    sublime    simplicity    of    that    M'ondrous 
prayer,    which   we    learn    from    the    lips    of    our    blessed    Saviour    on 
the    Mount:     "Our    Father,    who    art    in    Heaven,    hallowed    be    Thy 
name,    Thy    kingdom    come,    Thy   will    be    done    on    earth    as    it   is 
in    heaven."     Another    practical    consequence     of    the     utter    failure 
of     reason     was    an    almost    total    ignorance    of     the     second    great 
command,    which    is     like     unto    the    first :     "  Thou    shalt    love   thy 
neighbor     as     thyself,     for     God's     sake."       Hence,     that      heartless 
indifference    to     human    suffering,    that     cruel     barbarity,    that    blood- 
thirstiness,  which    disgraced  every    pagan    nation,    exhibited  by    them 
in   peace   as    well    as     in    war,   in    the    heroism    of  Horatius,    in    the 
patriotism    of    Brutus,    in     the     cruel     treatment     of    prisoners    and 
slaves,  in   their  inhumanity  to    women   and   children,   in  their  human 
sacrifices,    in    their   bloody    gladiatorial     shows,  and     in    the    practice 
which    universally   prevailed,    as     it    still    does    in    China    and   every 
nation    not     enlightened    by    divine     revelation,   the    practice    of    ex- 
posing   infants     to    death   as    soon     as     they   were    born,    which    both 
law  and   philosophy   sanctioned   among    Greeks    and     Romans    in   the 
days    of    their    greatest    refinement,   and    Avhich     was     never    declared 
illegal,    until    the    first     Christian     emperor,    Constantine    the    Great, 
ascended    the    throne  in   the    beginning  of  the  fourth   century    of  the 
Christian   era.     Looking   at  the    frequency  of  feticide,  infanticide  and 
abortion,    seeing   how     shamefully   and    almost    barefacedly   they   are 


FAITH  AND  REASON.  149 

practiced  in  our  large  towns  and  cities  at  tlie  present  day,  may 
we  not  rationally  fear  that  with  all  our  boasted  progress  and 
enlightenment,  we  are  going  back  to  paganism  instead  of  advancing 
towards  the  perfection  of  our  race?  AVe  have  all  sympathized  with 
the  pagan  audience  that  rose  in  the  great  Roman  theatre  one  day 
to  applaud  this  sentiment  of  an  actor:  ^^  Homo  sum;  humani 
nihil  a  me  alienum  puto — I  am  a  man,  and  feel  an  interest  in  all 
that  concerns  my  fellow-men."  Why  is  it  never  noted  that  the 
Avhole  plot  of  this  play  of  Terence  turns  on  the  foct,  that  the 
father,  who  utters  this  noble  sentiment,  discovers  his  child,  sup- 
posed to  be  lost,  because  exposed  to  death  in  its  infancy  according 
to  a  custom,  Avhicli  was  so  well  regulated,  legalized  and  sanctioned, 
that  when  the  new-born  child  was  presented  to  its  father,  if  he 
did  not  take  it  in  his  arms,  if  he  turned  his  back  upon  it,  it  was 
to  die  as  a  matter  of  course  ?  We  hear  men  in  our  own  days 
repeating  the  ancient  sentiment :  "  We  are  men  and  think  nothing 
foreign  to  us  that  concerns  the  human  race."  Humanitarianism  is 
fast  becoming  a  substitute  for  religion ;  and  yet,  with  all  our  pre- 
tended philanthropy,  rtien,  ignoring  the  fatherhood  of  God,  are  fast 
forgetting  the  common  brotherhood  of  men,  as  is  evident  from 
the  conflicts  between  rich  and  poor,  capital  and  labor,  authority 
and  obedience,  the  strikes  and  riots  and  revolutions  that  have  so 
often    convulsed    society    during   the    present   century. 

The  idea  of  creative  power  being  totally  lost,  all  religion  might 
have  perished  with  it,  but  that  the  imperfect  remains  of  tradi- 
tionary truth,  the  feeling  sense,  that  religion  after  all  is  the  first 
great  want  of  humanity,  the  hunger  and  thirst  of  the  soul  for  some 
object  of  supreme  veneration  and  worship,  the  idea  of  Divinity 
originally  and  indelibly  stamped  on  the  mind  of  the  whole  human 
race  drew  men  back  from  the  dark  gulf  of  atheism,  at  least 
practical  atlieism,  towards  which  reason  was  hurrying  them  by  her 
restless  efforts  to  measure  with  her  feeble  powers  the  infinite  and 
iflcomprehensible. 

'  Let  us  interrogate  philosophy  as  to  the  fruits  of  her  researches 
on  another  point  of  importance  and  vital  interest  to  all  mankind. 
Divine  Providence,  a  superintending  care  of  the  moral  and  physical 
universe,  was  merely  a  question,  on  both  sides  of  which  reason 
had  much  to  say.  Fate,  blind,  inexorable  destiny,  a  po\ver  superior 
to    gods    as    well    as    men,  was    commonly    supposed    to    be  the   ruler 


150  SERMONS  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

of  tliG  universe.  Moreover,  the  question  of  a  Providence  was  com- 
plicated b}'  the  want  of  a  clear  and  firm  belief  in  the  unity  of 
God.  The  philosophers,  who  listened  to  the  voice  of  tradition, 
and  thus  received  an  intimation  of  this  important  truth,  still  fell 
short  of  any  just  conception  of  the  relative  or  moral  attributes  of 
the  Supreme  Being,  whose  existence  and  absolute  attributes  they 
indistinctly  knew.  Some  regarded  Him  as  the  soul  of  the  uni- 
verse, animating  the  whole  frame  of  nature ;  others  as  an  inert 
being,  indiifcrent  to  the  affairs  of  men,  or  committing  their  gov- 
ernment to  inferior  gods.  AVhethcr  He  could  be  propitiated  by 
man,  whether  prayer,  sacrifice,  or  any  other  religious  act  was  neces- 
sary or  could  aught  avail,  they  professed  themselves  utterly  unable 
to  determine.  The  Epicureans  released  all  their  gods  from  every 
sort  of  care,  and  to  that  extent  there  are  thousands  of  Epicureans 
also  at  the  present  day.  The  Stoics  thought  that  man  was  all- 
sufficient  for  himself;  and  accordingly  they  pronounced  it  wealaaess 
to  pray  for  bodily  blessings,  and  waste  of  time  and  folly  to  peti- 
tion heaven  for  the  goods  of  the  mind ;  and  in  that  sense  there 
are  plenty  of  Stoics  also  in  our  own  times.  The  Peripatetics 
were  doubtful  and  contradictory,  and  the  Academicians  ready  on 
this,  as  on  every  other  point,  to  maintain  either  side  of  the  ques- 
tion. In  fact  there  was  more  of  truth  in  the  popular  supersti- 
tions than  in  the  speculations  of  philosophy.  The  peo])le  prayed 
to  their  false  deities ;  they  called  on  gods  that  could  neither  hear 
nor  help  them ;  they  offered  their  petitions  to  beings  more  vicious 
than  themselves,  and  oftentimes  for  objects  most  unholy.  But 
still  they  recognized  the  sacred  duty,  the  principle  of  prayer.  The 
philosopher,  on  the  contrary,  guided  by  pure  reason,  scoffed  at 
this  divine  instinct  of  our  nature ;  this  in-born  tendency  of  our 
being ;  this  universal  sentiment  of  our  race.  He  proposed  to  rob 
poor  human  nature  of  its  last  defence  of  prayer,  the  language  of 
faith,  tlie  voice  of  hope,  the  cry  of  weakness  and  of  -want,  the 
only  refuge  from  despair — prayer,  tlie  bond  of  union  between  man 
and  his  Creator,  the  homage  which  we  offer  Him  in  concert  with 
the  heavenly  hosts  that  minister  round  His  everlasting  throne,  the 
one  of  all  our  acts  and  occupations  wliich  immediately  and  of 
itself  prepares  and  practices  and  fits  us  for  heaven.  And  if  he, 
who  at  the  pressent  day  acknowledges  no  higlicr  phih^sophy  than 
that    of    reason,    does    sometimes    bend   the    knee    in    supplication    to 


FAITH  AND  REASON.  151 

his  Maker,  it  is  not  from  any  certainty  that  his  philosophy  gives 
him  of  the  necessity  or  efficacy  of  prayer ;  for  how  can  reason 
assure  him  that  the  Deity  wishes  to  be  invoked,  or  that  He  who 
has  foreseen,  predetermined  and  predestined  all  things,  will  hearken 
to  the  petitions  of  weak  and  erring  mortals  ?  AYhcn,  therefore,  he 
prays,  he  is  obeying  a  higher  voice  than  that  of  reason — the  voice 
of  conscience,  enlightened  by  some  rays  of  Divine  revelation. 

On  the  question  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  reason 
may  be  expected  to  speak  a  more  confident  language.  It 
is  emphatically  the  faith  of  the  human  race.  It  was  clearly 
revealed  from  the  beginning.  The  soul,  whose  immortality  is  in 
question,  is  our  own ;  and  through  consciousness  we  have  some 
.natural  knowledge  of  it  as  the  substance  which  thinks,  remembers, 
wills,  and  differs  in  all  its  ascertained  properties  from  body  or 
matter.  It  might  then  be  inferred,  without  the  help  of  revelation, 
that  the  soul  is  not  subject  to  the  decay  or  dissolution  to  which 
the  body  is  liable ;  and  could  only  be  destroyed  by  the  same 
Omnipotence  which  called  it  into  being.  Yet  human  philosophy, 
by  its  ceaseless  questionings,  has  been  able  to  overshadow  even 
this  subject  with  its  gloomy  doubts.  The  wisest  and  best  men  of 
antiquity  affirmed  that  the  soul  was  immaterial,  and  therefore 
indestructible.  They  shrunk  with  instinctive  horror  from  the 
prospect  of  annihilation ;  they  fondly  hoped  to  live  beyond  the 
grave ;  they  thought  that  the  universal  traditionary  belief  must  be 
right.  At  all  events  they  would  rather  err  on  this  side,  if  err 
they  must ;  they  Nvould  cherish  the  delusion,  if  it  were  a  delusion ; 
they  would  cling  to  the  belief  in  a  hereafter,  as  the  only  adequate 
motive  and  recompense  of  virtue,  the  solace  of  adversity,  the  sup- 
port of  wronged  and  suffering  innocence,  the  last  hope  of  trembling 
humanity. 

Those  who  are  versed  in  Greek  and  Roman  lore  will  recognize 
the  argument,  while  at  the  same  time  they  will  sympathize  with 
the  feelings  of  these  ancient  advocates  of  the  immortality  of  the 
soul ;  but,  after  all,  what  is  the  character  of  this  argument  ?  It 
is  mainly  not  an  appeal  to  reason,  but  to  the  instincts  and  senti- 
ments of  our  race.  How  different,  too,  is  tliis  opinion  or  persua- 
sion of  theirs  from  the  firm,  immovable  and  unwavering  confidence 
which  revelation  gives !  How  unlike  the  Christian's  "  Credo  in 
resurrectionem    mortuorum    d    vitam     cetcrnam.      Amen — I    believe    in 


152      SERMONS  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

the  resurrection  of  the  body  and  life  everlasting.  Amen."  But 
philosopliy  never  did  and  never  will  produce  a  Credo.  It  never 
did  and  never  will  construct  a  creed.  On  this  subject  it  held  not 
so  much  the  language  of  certainty,  as  of  hope  and  desire  blended 
W'itli  fears  and  haunted  with  doubts,  which  philosophy  had  not  the 
power  to  exorcise.  For  then  as  now  there  were  those  who,  vindi- 
cating the  rights  of  reason,  claimed  some  firmer  foundation  for  their 
faith  and  would  not  believe  what  did  not  present  to  their  minds 
the  character  of  evident  and  indisputable  truth.  "We  want  proofs,'* 
these  philosophers  exclaimed :  "  we  want  proofs  from  reason ;  we 
want  conclusive  arguments  addressed  to  reason ;  and  you  offer  us 
hopes  and  fears,  instinctive  feelings,  a  natural  dread  of  annihilation  y 
you  offer  us  vulgar  superstitions,  and  your  crude  notions  of  the, 
substance  of  the  soul,  which  we  do  not  feel  bound  to  admit,  which 
you    cannot   prove    true,    and    which     science   may   hereafter     refute.'* 

Pressed  by  sucli  difficulties,  the  nobler  spirits  among  the  old 
philosophers  felt,  that  reason  alone  was  but  a  treacherous  guide,  and 
turning  reproachful  looks  upon  her,  and  uttering  a  cry  of  distress, 
a  prayer  for  help,  took  refuge,  so  to  speak,  in  the  temple  of 
hope,  resolved  to  wait  there,  until  their  ignorance  should  be 
enlightened  by  some  messenger  from  above.  In  truth,  the  strongest 
testimonies  of  the  absolute  insufficiency  of  reason  to  determine 
this  and  similar  questions,  abound  in  the  writings  of  Cicero  and 
Plato,  and  may  be  found  in  the  declarations  of  other  philosophers. 
On  this  very  subject,  and  after  a  full  discussion  of  it,  Cicero, 
though  persuaded  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  says  in  his 
Tusculan  questions  :  "  It  would  require  a  God  to  decide  which  of 
the  opinions  is  true :  as  for  ourselves,  we  cannot  even  determine 
which  is  the  more  probable."  Plato,  in  his  work  called  Phaedo, 
had  previously  put  into  the  mouth  of  Socrates  the  following  lan- 
guage, speaking  also  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul :  "  The  clear 
knowledge  of  these  things  is  in  this  life  impossible,  or  at  least 
very  difficult.  The  philosopher,  therefore,  should  hold  to  that 
which  aj)pears  more  probable,  unless  he  has  some  surer  light,  or 
the  word  of  God  Himself  to  guide  him."  This  is  remarkable  lan- 
guage from  a  pagan ;  but  stranger  still  that  rationalists  of  the 
present  day    have    not    risen    even    to    its    height. 

Now,  we  ask  whether  reason,  which  could  not  rise  to  anything 
higher     than    a     mere   probability,    a    cherished     though     possibly     a 


FAITH  AND  REASON.  153 

delusive  persuasion  on  a  matter  so  clearly  proposed  to  it  by  the 
belief  of  mankind,  could  ever  have  discovered  this  truth,  if  it 
had  not  been  primitively  revealed  to  our  race?  It  is  very  easy  for 
a  man  at  the  present  day  to  say :  "  My  reason  teaches  me  to  know 
and  adore  God ;  my  reason  teaches  me  to  believe  in  a  Providence ; 
my  reason  teaches  me  to  expect  an  immortal  life  hereafter ;  my 
reason  teaches  me  this,  that  and  the  other  thing."  He  stands  on 
the  vantage  ground,  to  which  Christianity,  not  philosophy,  has 
raised  him.  He  lives  in  the  light  of  divine  revelation,  though, 
like  some  African  tribes  that  we  read  of,  he  may  curse  and 
blaspheme  the  luminary  that  vivifies  and  irradiates  his  mind. 
Had  he  not  been  reared  in  a  Christian  land,  under  the  influence 
of  Christian  ideas,  Christian  traditions  and  Christian  faith,  he 
might,  with  that  same  boastful  reason  for  his  guide,  be  to-day  a 
groveling  and  superstitious  idolator,  or  at  best  a  doubting  and  be- 
wildered inquirer  after  unknown  truth. 

Reason,  then,  is  not  that  pillar  of  light  which  is  to  guide  us 
safely  through  the  desert  of  this  life  to  the  promised  land  that  lies 
beyond.  We  needed  a  revelation,  and  a  revelation  has  been  given 
us.  Knowing  how  the  wisest  and  the  best  of  the  philosophers  of 
antiquity  longed  for  the  dawning  of  this  heavenly  light,  we  would 
suppose  that  its  appearance  was  hailed  with  universal  joy.  But 
history  tells  us  quite  a  diifcrent  story ;  and  the  erring  reason,  the 
proud,  rebellious  reason  of  man,  was  not  the  least  potent  and  con- 
spicuous among  the  formidable  antagonists  of  early  Christianity,  just 
as  it  is  not  the  least  powerful  of  the  adversaries  of  Christianity  at 
the  present  day.  The  Cross  of  Christ  was  indeed  a  stumbling-  block 
to  the  Jews,  but  to  the  Greeks,  the  educated,  refined,  the  aesthetic 
and  philosophic  Greeks  and  Romans,  it  was  downright  folly,  as  it  is 
downright  folly  to  the  £esthetic  and  philosophic  pagans  of  our  modern 
times.  It  happened  then,  as  it  often  happens  now,  that  reason  was 
ready  with  her  line  and  plummet,  her  compass  and  her  square,  to 
sound  the  depths  and  take  all  the  dimensions  of  truths,  which 
reached  from  the  highest  heavens  even  to  the  lowest  abyss  of  hell; 
and  when  her  line  was  out,  she  was  sure  that  she  had  fathomed  the 
fiithomless,  and  when  her  compass  was  stretched  to  its  very  utmost, 
she  was  quite  sure  that  she  had  measured  Infinitude  itself.  It  is 
a  great  question,  no  doubt,  whether  the  doctrines  of  revelation  are 
to    be   implicitly  believed,  or  subjected  to  the  examination  of  reason. 


154  S£EJIO^^S  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

But  to  state  the  question  is  to  solve  it.  It  is  the  most  presump- 
tuous folly  that  can  possibly  be  conceived,  for  man,  with  the 
powers  of  unaided  reason,  to  undertake  to  determine  what  God  must 
say,  when  He  speaks  to  His  rational  and  responsible  creatures.  It 
is  a  most  blasphemous  inversion  of  order  for  the  creature  to 
attempt   to    give    laws    to    the   Creator. 

To  seize  the  biilance  and  the   rod, 
Rejudge  His  justice,  be  the  God  of  God. 

It  is  the  finite  measuring  the  infinite ;  weak,  puny,  human 
reason  declaring  herself  the  judge  and  arbiter  of  divine,  eternal 
reason.  When,  therefore,  anything  is  proposed  to  me  with  the 
seal  of  revelation  on  it,  if  my  reason  cannot  fathom  it,  if  it 
surpass  my  powers  of  comprehension,  am  I,  therefore,  to  pronounce 
it  false  and  reject  it  as  unreasonable?  Would  not  such  a  rule 
as  this  be  destructive  of  revelation  itself?  Would  it  not  throw 
us  back  into  the  condition  of  the  old  pagan  philosophers,  lost 
like  them,  but  without  their  excuse,  in  the  mazes  of  human 
opinion  ?  What  doctrine  of  revelation  could  stand  such  a  foolish 
test  ?  It  has  been  applied  to  all  of  them  successively,  and  as  a 
consequence  of  its  application,  all  of  them  have  been  successively 
rejected.  If  it  enable  you  to-day  to  reject  some  article  of  my 
faith,  will  it  not  enable  some  other  man  to-morrow  to  overturn 
your  peculiar  belief?  And  descending  step  by  step  through  all 
the  grades  and  forms  of  religious  opinion,  must  it  not  inev- 
itably lead  to  naked  deism?  And  since  there  is  nothing  so 
incompreheusible  as  Almighty  God  Himself,  nothing  so  incredible 
to  reason  as  creation  out  of  nothing,  nothing  more  difficult  to 
understand  than  a  Being  self-existent,  infinite,  independent,  eternal, 
omnipresent  in  all  space  and  in  every  minutest  point  of  space, 
must  it  not  end  by  denying  Him  entirely?  What  other  limit 
has  it  than  downright  atheism  ?  Reason  then  is  not,  in  this  sense, 
the  judge  of  revelation.  No  one  is  authorized  to  reject  a  doctrine 
simply  because  he  cannot  comprehend  it.  I  speak  as  a  Christian 
philosopher,  not  in  the  interest  of  my  own  creed  alone,  or  of  any 
peculiar  dogma  now,  but  as  the  advocate  of  a  common  Chris- 
tianity ;  and  I  solemnly  denounce  a  principle,  which  is  not  only  false, 
but  subversive  of  human  reason  as  well  as  divine  revelation.  Reason 
herself  then,    if  truly    enlightened,    will    direct    us    to    believe    what 


FAITH  AND  REASON.  155 

we  cannot  comprehend,  when  its  trnth  is  duly  attested.  While, 
therefore,  not  the  judge  of  revelation,  she  may  be  the  judge  of  the 
evidences  of  revelation.  They  who  do  not  comprehend  the  truths 
of  geometry  would  exhibit  little  wisdom  in  pronouncing  them 
false.  The  immense  majority  of  men  who  understand  nothing  of 
the  "calculation  of  an  eclipse  or  the  return  of  a  comet,  or  the 
nature  and  velocity  of  wind  currents,  should  not  therefore  refuse 
all  credence  to  the  predictions  of  astronomical  and  meteorological 
.science.  The  tribes  that  live  within  the  tropics  are  not  admired 
for  their  extensive  knowledge  and  profound  philosophy,  when  they 
will  not  believe  that  water  can  become  solid,  so  that  men  may 
walk  on  it,  and  the  huge  elephant  move  securely  over  its  stony 
surface,  though  they  do  not  and  cannot  understand  how  this  may 
be.  The  true  position  evidently  is,  that  our  inability "  to  com- 
prehend a  fact  or  doctrine  does  not  by  itself  authorize  us  either 
to  affirm  it  or  deny  it ;  but  when  we  have  satisfactory  evidence 
of  its  truth,  then  we  are  bound  to  believe  it,  whether  we  com- 
prehend it  or  not,  Now,  the  dogmas  of  revealed  religion  must 
surpass  our  comprehension,  because  they  relate  to  God  and  to  the 
future  life,  which  to  us  are  subjects  essentially  mysterious  and 
incomprehensible.  The  believer  is  the  first  to  proclaim  that  such 
is  their  nature.  He  knows  that,  if  you  strip  them  of  their  char- 
acter of  mystery,  you  take  away  one  of  the  most  evident  marks 
of  their  divine  origin.  He  knows,  too,  that  mysteries  are  not 
confined  to  revelation.  The  most  familiar  facts  in  nature  are 
often  the  most  incomprehensible.  The  union  of  soul  and  body, 
and  their  mutual  action  and  reaction  on  each  other,  the  princi- 
ple of  intelligence  and  affection  in  brutes,  gravitation,  electricity, 
•galvanism,  magnetism,  all  the  so-called  known  laws  of  the  phys- 
ical universe,  arc  so  many  mysteries,  in  regard  to  which  we 
believe  the  facts  that  have  been  ascertained,  though  we  do  not 
and  cannot  satisfactorily  account  for  them.  You  all,  I  trust,  hear 
me  to-night.  If  you  do,  you  know  the  fact ;  you  know  that  my 
voice  puts  certain  waves  of  air  in  motion,  and  these  striking  the 
drum  of  your  ears  convey  the  sounds  to  your  outward  sense  of 
hearing  and  my  thoughts  to  the  inward  intelligence  of  your  souls. 
You  know  the  fact  of  this,  but  how  it  happens,  neither  reason 
nor  science  is  able  to  explain.  There  is  not  a  blade  of  grass,  or 
flower   of  the    field,   or    dew-drop    sparkling   on    its    leaves,  or  tiniest 


156  SEBMONS  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

insect  nestling  in  its  chalice,  that  may  not  present  to  the  reflect- 
ing beholder  a  multitude  of  questions,  which  reason  cannot  answer. 
And  shall  the  intellect,  which  at  every  turn  and  every  glance  is 
so  forcibly  reminded  of  its  ignorance  and  impotence,  presume  to 
require  of  Almighty  God  a  full  and  perfect  explanation  of  every 
truth,  which  He  in  His  wisdom  declares  to  us,  before  it  will 
condescend   to    believe    His    divine    attestation? 

There  is  another  point  of  view  in  which  enlightened  reason 
must  admit  her  perfect  incompetency  to  deal  with  revelation  any 
otherwise  than  by  submissive  assent  and  lowly  adoration.  I  refer 
to  that  most  extravagant  of  all  the  extravagancies  of  the  human 
mind,  its  pretended  right  to  improve  or  amend,  in  any  manner 
whatsoev^er,  the  doctrines  and  institutions,  the  system  of  faith  and 
practice,  once  declared  to  us  on  the  part  of  the  Most  High.  To' 
believe  in  Christianity,  because  its  Author  was  the  incarnate  Son 
of  God,  and  its  promulgators  His  inspired  Apostles,  and  then  t» 
maintain  that  what  was  divine  at  the  origin  of  our  faith  must 
change  and  undergo  revision  and  correction,  that  it  may  keep  pace 
with  the  pretended  march  of  intellect,  the  progress  of  human 
knowledge,  the  material  improvement  of  our  race ;  to  imagine,  in 
a  word,  that  we  of  the  present  day  can  manufacture  a  better 
Christianity  than  the  Son  of  God  has  made  for  us  and  entrusted 
to  our  hands    is    indeed    to    verify  the    expressions    of  the   poet,  that 

Fools  nish  ill, 

Where  angels  fear  to  tread  ; 

And 

Man,  weak  man. 

Plays  such  fantastic  tricks  before  high  heaven, 

As  make  the  angels  weep. 

It  would  be  just  as  rational  to  pronounce  the  sun  an  obsolete 
and  antiquated  luminary,  quite  good  enough  to  give  light  and 
warmth  and  gladness  to  the  world  some  two  or  three  thousand 
years  ago,  but  now  totally  behind  the  times,  utterly  unsuited  to 
the  increased  knowledge,  enlarged  philosophy  and  higher  wants  of 
this  grand  and  glorious  nineteenth  century.  We  might  as  well  cry 
out:  "Down  with  the  sun,  and  up  with  Edison  and  his  electric 
light !  ^'  though  he  has  not  yet  succeeded  in  making  it  a  respect- 
able   substitute   for   even   the  smallest   star   that   twinkles    its    steady 


FAITH  AND  REASON.  157 

twinkle  in  the  quiet  midnight  sky.  Why,  if  one  of  the  Apostles, 
rising  from  the  grave,  or  if  an  angel  from  heaven  (we  are  but 
repeating  the  energetic  language  of  him  who  was  wrapped  to  the 
third  heavens),  if  an  angel  from  heaven  M'ere  to  offer  us  a  new 
Gospel,  a  pretended  revelation,  differing  but  in  one  iota  from  that 
which  the  Son  of  God  has  given  us,  our  only  salutation  to  the 
rash   innovator    must   be  anathema. 

Resting  on  this  firm  foundation,  the  believer  is  delighted  with 
every  effort  to  enlarge  the  boundaries  of  science,  and  hails  with 
joy  every  new  discovery  of  truth.  He  never  dreams  that  Chris- 
tianity can  be  endangered  by  the  progress  of  science.  He  knows 
that  every  tenet  of  Christian  faith  is  an  infallible  truth,  based  on 
the  sure  authority  of  Him  who  has  revealed  it.  How  can  that 
which  is  true  ever  be  proved  false  ?  Or  how  can  any  one  truth 
€ver  be  at  war  with  any  other  truth  ?  Truth  is  truth  eternally. 
The  believer  may  sometimes  hesitate  to  accept  the  mere  theories 
■of  science.  He  may  question,  for  a  while,  the  arguments  on  which 
they  rest ;  but  as  soon  as  they  work  themselves  out  of  the  region 
of  scientific  theory,  and  work  themselves  into  the  region  of  dem- 
onstrated scientific  fact,  they  become  scientific  truths,  and  no  be- 
liever in  revelation  can  have  a  moment's  fear  that  religion  will 
in  any  way  be  injured  by  them.  Thus  the  Church  hesitated  for 
a,  time,  to  abandon  even  a  mere  traditional  interpretation  of  a 
Scriptural  text  at  the  demand  of  Galileo.  The  Copernican  system 
Tvas  afterwards  demonstrated  to  be  objectively  true ;  but  in  its 
theoretic  stage  it  was  subjectively  uncertain.  Some  of  the  argu- 
ments, which  Galileo  urged  in  support  of  it,  were  false  and  had 
to  be  rejected;  and  so  the  Church,  always  cautious  and  conser- 
vative, hesitated,  until  the  false  was  separated  from  the  true  and 
the  system  stood  on  the  solid  basis  of  scientific  fact;  and  then 
she  readily  accepted  it  in  its  bearing  upon  Holy  Writ.  Had 
Galileo  been  content  to  teach  the  system  merely  as  a  theory  and 
to  leave  the  issue  to  such  scientific  tests,  as  would  eliminate  all 
uncertainty  and  doubt,  history  to-day  would  be  without  one  of 
its  notable  sensations.  Again,  geology  has  been  urged  as  contra- 
dicting the  revealed  history  of  the  creation  of  the  world.  Some  geol- 
ogists have  presumed,  that  the  six  days  of  Genesis  must  be  taken  as 
days  of  twenty-four  hours  each.  The  Church,  however,  the  guardian 
and  interpreter  of  revelation,  has    never  so  defined    them  ;    but   from 


158  SERJlO^^S  OF  TUB  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

the  beginning,  as  is  evident  from  the  opinions  of  many  of  the  early- 
Fathers,  she  has  left  us  free  to  accept  them  either  as  natural  days  or 
as  indefinite  periods  of  time ;  and,  waiving  the  question  of  the 
possibility  of  creation  in  six  days  of  twenty-four  hours  each,  she 
leaves  the  fact  entirely  to  science.  Faith  is  in  no  M'ise  involved ; 
and  geology  itself  has  not  yet  emerged  from  its  tlicoretic  period. 
"Who  imagines  that  the  demonstrations  of  mathematical  science  will 
ever  be  refuted?  Who  is  afraid  that  any  of  the  conclusions  of 
geometry  will  be  disturbed  by  the  progress  of  discovery?  Yet  no 
Christian  philosopher  will  pretend  that  mathematical  certainty  is 
higher  than  the  certainty  of  divine  revelation.  If  this  comparison 
appear  bold  and  hazardous  to  any  one,  it  can  only  be  because  he 
does  not  understand  the  very  meaning  of  the  term  revelation. 
He  who  holds  a  system  of  doctrines  which  he  thinks  may  have 
been  revealed,  while  he  is  not  perfectly,  that  is,  infallibly  certain, 
that  they  have  been  revealed,  cannot  venture  on  such  a  comparison. 
The  reason  is  obvious.  He  docs  not  believe  truths  divinely 
revealed ;  he  entertains  opinions  about  what  has  been  revealed,  and 
these  opinions  may  be  partly  true  and  partly  false,  or  wholly 
true  or  wliolly  false.  Such  a  man  is  or  should  be  an  inquirer, 
a  seeker  after  the  sure  and  perfect  and  infallible  truths  that  God 
has  revealed.  A  believer,  a  man  of  Christian  faith,  he  is  not 
and  cannot  be,  as  long  as  a  shadow  of  doubt  or  uncertainty  rests 
upon    his    mind. 

But  reason  still  claims  to  be  the  judge  of  revelation,  so  far 
at  least  as  to  feel  authorized  to  choose  among  revealed  dogmas,  to 
give  a  decided  preference  to  some,  and  a  cold,  if  not  a  contemptu- 
ous, look  to  others.  According  to  "this  notion,  some  doctrines  are 
essential  and  must  therefore  be  believed.  Others  are  unimportant, 
and  you  may  believe  them,  if  you  choose,  or  deny  them,  dispute 
about  them,  proclaim  them  false,  or  treat  them  as  altogether  un- 
worthy of  consideration.  The  first  class  of  doctrines  are  funda- 
mental. Tliis  is  the  favorite  phrase.  They  must  be  retained, 
because  they  are  supposed  to  be  the  foundation,  on  which  the 
whole  edifice  of  Christianity  is  based.  Admitting  the  distinction 
only  for  the  sake  of  argument,  still  I  would  ask,  what  are  the 
foundations  without  the  superstructure?  Surely  tlie  foundations  of 
a  building  will  be  of  very  little  service  when  the  walls  and  roof 
and    all    the    other    parts    are    forcibly    taken    away.     But    we    are 


FAITH  AND  REASON.  159" 

also  compelled  to  ask,  liow  is  reason  to  determine  which  doctrines 
are  fundamental  and  which  are  not?  AVhat  appears  so  to  the 
mind  of  one  man  may  seem  very  vmimportant  to  another ;  and 
experience  proves  this  to  be  an  insuperable  difficulty ;  for  they  wliO' 
have  assumed  the  principle  in  question  have  never  yet  been  able 
to  designate  precisely  the  fundamental  dogmas  of  Christianity,  or 
to  give  such  a  definition  or  description  of  them  as  may  enable 
us  to  recognize  and  identify  them  when  we  see  them.  But  the 
principle  is  a  bad  one,  not  only  false  and  impious,  but  also 
clearly  irrational ;  for  it  presumes  a  revelation  only  to  destroy 
what  it  presumes.  A  revelation  supposes  that  God  has  spoken  to 
His  rational  creatures ;  that  He  has  made  known  certain  things 
to  them  which  are  above  their  natural  comprehension ;  that  He 
has  declared  certain  truths,  given  us  certain  laws  and  established 
certain  institutions,  to  enable  us  to  know  and  attain  the  end  for 
which  we  are  created.  And  is  it  not  blasphemy  to  say  that  any^ 
truths  which  He  in  His  wisdom  has  declared  to  us  are  of  so  little 
consequence,  that  they  may  be  disputed,  denied,  spurned  with  con- 
tempt? Is  it  not  a  bold  defiance  of  the  Omnipotent  for  man  to 
disregard,  to  set  aside  as  trivial  and  useless,  to  nullify  on  any 
pi'etext  whatever  any  law  that  God  has  given  him  ?  Is  it  not 
ingratitude  and  insult,  combined  in  the  highest  degree,  to  make 
light  of  and  reject  any  institution,  whether  the  Church  in  general 
or  the  sacramental  system  in  particular,  which  He,  through  infi- 
nite mercy  and  condescension,  has  established  for  our  sanctification 
in  this  life  and  our  eternal  happiness  in  the  next?  There  is 
wisdom  in  the  homely  saying  that  "  beggars  should  not  be  choosers." 
There  is  a  good  deal  of  rugged  truth  in  the  old  Shakspearean 
adage :  "  Put  a  beggar  on  horseback  and  he  is  sure  to  ride  to 
the  devil."  Only  mount  the  beggar  man  upon  the  balky  steed 
of  human  reason,  and  it  is  not  hard  to  tell  in  what  direction  he 
will  gallop ;  for  he  has  been  going  in  but  one  direction  ever  since 
he  cast  off  the  authority  of  faith.  For  if  it  be  reason's  privilege 
to  play  the  lord  and  master  with  the  Word  of  God,  to  canvass 
the  merits  and  demerits  of  divine  truths,  to  discuss  their  com- 
parative value  and  worthlessness,  to  sift  the  supposed  wheat  from 
the  supposed  chaff,  to  treat  them  as  a  pile  of  rubbish  containing 
some  hidden  gems,  or  as  a  decayed  and  ruinous  and  rotten  fabric, 
which    must    be    cleared    away    to    the    very   foundations    before   we 


160  SER3I0NS  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

can  get  any  good  out  of  it,  then  I  say  to  you  to-night,  my 
dear  brethren,  welcome  deism,  welcome  atheism,  welcome  anything 
else,  which  will  only  be  consistent  with  itself  and  not  give  the 
lie  to  its  own  silly  pretensions ! 

If  then  we  are  asked,  what  is  the  province  of  reason  in  relation 
to  revealed  religion,  we  answer,  to  seek  the  light  of  revelation,  if 
it  has  not  been  found,  and  to  follow  its  guidance,  if  it  has  been 
found.  If  the  farther  question  is  put,  how  shall  reason  distinguish 
and  recognize  revealed  truth;  without  attempting  to  give  a  complete 
answer  to  the  inquiry  now,  we  will  simply  say  that  she  must  weigh 
the  evidences  of  revealed  religion,  but  weigh  them  with  prayer  as 
well  as  study  and  investigation ;  and  God,  who  has  said :  "  Ask 
and  you  shall  receive,  seek  and  you  shall  find,  knock  and  it  shall 
be  open  unto  you,"  will  grant  the  needed  gift  of  faith.  Reason 
has  the  undoubted  right  to  question  and  reject  whatever  comes  to 
her  in  the  guise  of  mere  human  opinion.  She  cannot  fairly  be 
required  to  admit  as  revealed  what  does  not  purport  to  be  such.- 
All  the  truths  of  revelation  are  unchangeable,  infallible,  divine. 
Doctrines  which  have  these  characters  stamped  upon  them  claim 
the  assent  and  submission  of  human  reason.  AVith  anything  else 
she  may  deal  as  she  pleases.  But  the  unchangeable,  infallible, 
divine  truths  of  revelation  are  given  us  from  heaven  to  be  accepted 
and  believed,  not  to  be  the  themes  of  philosophic  criticism  or 
theological  speculation.  We  may  indeed  examine  them  so  as  to  be 
able  to  "give  a  reason  for  the  faith  that  is  in  us:"  but  the 
investigation  must  be  carried  on  in  the  spirit  of  faith  and  humble 
adoration. 


i 


Bev.  Th07Jias  Broyderick. 


Rev.  John  S.  Foley,  D.U. 


Utx.  George  W.  Veviue. 


Rev.  Joseph  Graj. 


Rev.  J.  L.  Andieis. 


Very  Rev.  I'.  L.  C/iajietle,  D.H. 


Rev.  li.  J.  McMaitus. 


Rev   1).  J.  O'CoiUiM,  D.D. 


I  en/  RiV.  II.  Gubriets,  DR. 


^i\t  4»tf|alit  4^k^mi\  m  i^t  '^mid  ^\nk^. 


SERMOI  OF  EiaHT  REY.  BERIIRD  J.  HcQUAID,  D.D.. 

EISHOP   OF   ROCHESTER. 


THE  growth  of  the  United  States  Avithin  the  century  of  their 
existence  as  an  independent  sovereignty,  in  population,  in 
<;ommerce  and  manufactures,  in  extension  and  development  of  ter- 
ritory, in  literature  and  fine  arts,  in  diffusion  of  elementary 
knowledge  among  the  masses  of  the  people,  in  successful  trial  of 
government  of  the  people  by  the  people,  is  unparalleled  in  the 
history    of  the    world. 

Scarely  had  peace  between  the  mother-country  and  the  thir- 
teen revolted  colonies  been  declared,  after  a  trying  and  bloody 
struggle  of  seven  years,  than  the  emancipated  colonists  resolutely 
set  to  work  to  construct  a  form  of  government  that  should  keep 
in  view  the  best  and  largest  interest  of  the  people  while  strongly 
upholding  law  »and  order.  These  colonies  threw  wide  open  their 
vast  domain  and  invited  the  oppressed  and  down-trodden  of  Eu- 
ropean countries  to  enter  into  possession.  There  were  forests  to  be 
felled  and  fields  to  be  broken  up  and  cultivated.  There  was  no 
room  for  the  idler,  the  drone  or  the  dreamer.  It  was  a  new 
country  of  immense  resources  for  the  hardy  sons  of  toil.  It  offered 
the  freedom  and  dignity  of  self-respecting  manhood  to  lovers  of 
liberty    and    independence. 

The  readiness  with  which  the  invitation  was  accepted  is  known 
to  all.  From  every  country  and  from  every  class  of  life  the  bravest 
and  most  venturesome,  longing  for  escape  from  the  thraldom  of  the 
old  countries  of  Europe,  flocked  to  the  shores  of  the  young  Republic. 
The  narrow  strip  of  seaboard  running  from  Massachusetts  to  Georgia 

1^  (161) 


162  SERMONS  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

rapidly  widened  westward  to  the  Mississippi,  and  thenj  without  more- 
tlian  a  temporary  break,  reached  to  the  Pacific.  It  is  a  mighty 
empire  bounded  by  the  two  oceans,  the  great  lakes  on  the  north  and 
the  gulf  on  the  south.  The  three  millions  of  revolutionary  days 
have  increased  to  the  fifty-five  millions  of  to-day.  The  thirteen 
colonies  are  replaced  by  thirty-eight  States.  The  experiment  of  gov- 
ernment by  the  people  has  withstood  successfully  rude  shocks,  serious 
defects,  conflicts  of  material  interests,  even  a  civil  M'ar.  All  avenues 
of  advancement  to  wealth  and  honor  have  been  thronged  with  the 
children  of  intellect  and  industry.  The  home,  the  freedom  and  the 
prosperity  promised  in  the  invitation  have  been  found  by  millions. 
The  dire  forebodings  of  eventual  disruption  and  ruin  have  come 
to  naught.  The  predictions  of  anarchy  to  befall  a  government  so 
largely  entrusted  to  the  people  have  not  been  verified.  The  old 
country  first  pitied  us,  tiien  fought  us,  and  again  defeated,  feared 
us.  It  is  now  compelled,  most  reluctantly,  it  is  true,  to  learn 
from  us  the  advantage  and  necessity  of  entrusting  to  the  people  a 
larger  share  in  the  direction  and  control  of  political  affairs.  Ours 
is  a  government  of  the  people  by  the  people,  in  the  largest  sense 
consistent  with  the  maintenance  of  good  order  and  the  equal  rights 
of  its    citizens. 

It  is  assigned  to  me  to  speak  of  the  growth  of  the  Catholic 
Church  in  a  country  such  as  the  one  here  described. 

In  no  better  way  can  I  place  before  you  the  growth  of  the 
Church  than  by  grouping  the  statistics  of  Church  M'ork,  such  as  we 
have    them,  at    three    periods    of  the  century  just  ended. 

1.  The  condition  of  the  Catholic  Church  in  1784. 

2.  Her  progress  after  fifty  years,  in  1834. 

3.  The  Church  as  she  is  to-day,  in  1884. 

In  1783  the  number  of  Catholics,  according  to  Bishop  Carroll's- 
calculation,  as  quoted  by  Shea,  might  amount  in  Maryland  to  six- 
teen thousand  souls ;  in  Pennsylvania,  to  seven  thousand ;  and  in 
the  other  States,  to  fifteen  hundred ;  not  as  many  all  told  as  may  be 
counted  to-day  in  a  single  parish  in  some  of  our  large  cities. 
Mass  Avas  commonly  celebrated  in  private  houses.  There  were  few 
or  no  churches.  There  was  no  bishop,  and  in  the  judgment  of 
the  eighteen  or  twenty  missionaries  who  ministered  to  the  spiritual 
M'ants  of  these  scattered  members,  as  expressed  in  a  letter  to 
Home,    there     was    no     need    of     a    bishop,    inasmuch    as    a    vicar 


THE  CATHOLIC  CHURCH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  163 

apostolic,  in  spiritualibus,  Avould  suffice.  There  was  no  college, 
school,  asylum  or  hospital.  Of  religious  communities  of  men  or 
women  there  was  not  one.  It  is  a  bare  picture  on  a  large  can- 
vass that  is  here  presented  to  our  view. 

The  See  of  Baltimore  was  erected  by  Pius  YI  on  the  6th 
day  of  November,  1789,  and  in  1790  its  first  Bishop,  Rev.  John 
Carrol],  was  consecrated.  The  establishment  of  a  hierarchy  placed 
the  Churcli  in  America  in  line  with  her  sister  Churches  in  other 
parts  of  the  world,  and  gave  her  officials  a  rule  to  work  by.  In 
a  diocese  tlie  bishop  is  the  recognized  conservator  of  Catholic  faith 
and  morals,  in  unity  and  harmony  with  the  head  Bishop  of  the 
Universal  Church.  With  this  first  bishop  began  the  regulation  of 
discipline  and  the  founding  of  institutions  needed  for  the  growth 
and    stability   of  the   Church    as    an    organized   body. 

Bishop  Carroll,  and  others  after  him,  planned  to  place  bishops 
in  every  extended  geographical  district.  It  was  rightly  judged  that 
these  bishops  would  give  a  start  and  direction  to  the  Church's 
work  from  the  beginning.  In  this  sense  Bishop  Connolly,  of  New 
York,  \Yrote  to  the  Cardinal  Prefect  of  the  Propaganda  on  the  28th 
of  February,  1818:  "  Bisliops  ought  to  be  granted  to  whatever 
State  here  is  willing  to  build  a  cathedral,  and  petition  for  a  bishop 
as  Norfolk  has  done."  On  the  31st  of  October,  1818,  he  wrote 
to  Archbishop  Marechal :  ''  I  approve  of  erecting  Charleston  into  a 
bishopric,  tind  wish  that  every  one  of  the  seventeen  United  States 
had  each  a  bishop."  Indeed  there  was  no  delay  in  carving  up 
the  country  with  episcopal  sees ;  bishops  sometimes  preceded  the 
priests.  There  were  only  four  priests  in  New  York  when  Bishoj) 
Connolly  came  to  his  diocese ;  two  in  that  of  Charleston,  com- 
prising the  States  of  North  and  South  Carolina  and  Georgia,  when 
Bishop  England  took  possession  of  his  allotted  district;  the  same 
number  preceded  Bishop  Brute's  arrival  at  Vincennes.  At  a  later 
date.  Bishops  Loras  and  Miles  prepared  the  way  for  the  coming 
of  the  first  priest   into  the  Dioceses   of  Dubuque  and  Nashville. 

Vast  territory,  slow  and  tedious  modes  of  traveling,  few  helpers 
in  the  work,  the  poverty  of  the  Gospel  fell  to  the  lot  of  our 
American  pioneer-bishops.  That  they  were  apostolic  men  of  God 
no  one  can  doubt.  They  were  eminently  far-seeing  and  hopeful 
laborers  in  an  unbroken  and  rough  field  —  in  a  wilderness  of 
spiritual    destitution. 


164  SERMONS  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

Six  prelates  met  for  the  holding  of  the  first  Provincial  Coun- 
cil of  Baltimore  in  1829,  and  ten  for  the  second  in  October, 
1833.  Their  work,  as  seen  in  the  decrees  of  these  councils,  gave 
evidence  of  wisdom,  prudence  and  learning,  in  adapting  discipline 
to  the  peculiar  circumstances  in  which  they,  their  priests  and  the 
faithful  under  their  care  were  placed.  From  the  first  tlieir  thoughts 
and  efforts  were  directed  towards  the  education  of  tlie  young. 
Colleges  and  academies  sprang  into  existence ;  Christian  free 
schools,  such  as  are  known  to-day,  for  want  of  religious  commu- 
nities, devoted  to  the  education  of  the  people's  children,  languished 
when  set  agoing  and  were  few  in  number.  The  duty  of  providing 
churches,  ever  so  small  and  poor — mere  shanties  and  log-cabins 
oftentimes — engrossed  the   time   and   means   of  bishops. 

From  the  beginning  of  the  century  until  1834,  Catholics  who 
had  known  suffering  and  persecution  in  Maryland  and  Europe, 
moved  among  their  fellow-citizens  quietly  and  with  exceeding  hu- 
mility and  meekness.  They  were  specially  careful  not  to  offend 
their  separated  brethren,  and  received  in  return  becoming  pity 
and  tolerance.  No  one  feared  tliem ;  they  were  so  few  in  num- 
ber, so  inconsequential  and  so  anxious  not  to  offend.  The  condi- 
tion of  tolerance  was  accepted  as  a  boon  rather  than  demand  the 
right   of  equality    before    the    law    to    which    they    were    born. 

About  this  time,  however,  the  steady  influx  of  immigrants 
from  all  the  countries  of  Europe,  but  chiefly  of  Catholics  from 
Ireland,  the  building  of  large  and  costly  churches  in  important 
cities,  as  here  in  Baltimore  and  in  New  York,  the  opening  of 
colleges  and  convents,  the  multiplying  of  bishops  and  priests, 
turned  pity  into  fear.  The  Fathers  of  the  second  Council  refer 
to  this  change  of  feeling  and  treatment  in  their  pastoral  letter. 
"  We  notice  with  regret,"  they  write,  "  a  spirit  exhibited  by 
some  of  the  conductors  of  the  press  engaged  in  the  interests  of 
those  brethren  separated  from  our  communion  which  has  within  a 
few  years  become  more  unkind  and  unjust  in  our  regard.  Not 
only  do  they  assail  us  and  our  institutions  in  a  style  of  vitupera- 
tion and  offence,  misrepresent  our  tenets,  vilify  our  practices, 
repeat  the  hundred-times-refuted  calumnies  of  days  of  angry  and 
bitter  contention  in  other  lands,  but  they  have  even  denounced 
you  and  us  as  enemies  to  the  republic,  and  have  openly  pro- 
claimed  the    fancied   necessity  of  not   only  obstructing   our   progress, 


THE  CATBOLIG  CHURCH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.         165 

but  of  using  their  best  efforts  to  extirpate  our  religion.'^  This 
is  a  mild  arraignment  of  an  exhibition  of  fanatical  bigotry  that 
suddenly  burst  on  the  Church.  Secular  and  religious  press  alike, 
and  all  the  pulpits  fr.om  Maine  to  Louisiana,  weekly  and  oftener 
poured  out  torrents  of  rancorous  abuse  and  calumny,  and  left 
unused  no  art  or  device  with  which  to  fan  the  flame  of  religious 
hate  and  passion  in  the  minds  and  hearts  of  their  readers  and 
hearers.  In  the  August  of  1834  the  answer  to  this  temperate  rebuke 
of  the  bishops  was  the  setting  fire  to  the  convent  of  the  Ursuline 
Nuns  of  Charlestown  by  citizens  of  Boston  town  and  vicinity. 
Gallant  men  burned  over  the  heads  of  defenceless  women  and 
school-girls  their  rightful  home,  even  as  less  than  a  century  before 
savage  Indians,  wrought  to  rage  by  many  wrongs,  had  set  ablaze 
the    huts    and    cabins    of    the    early    settlers    in    Massachusetts. 

While  noting  this  phase  of  intolerance  as  a  hindrance  to  the 
growth  of  the  Church  within  the  first  half  of  the  century,  it  will 
not  be  out  of  place  to  refer  to  the  continuance  of  the  same  spirit 
of  opposition,  amounting  to  persecution,  which  furiously  manifested 
itself  in  1844  and  in  1854.  This  malevolent  spirit  deepened  and 
grew  bolder  among  our  non-Catholic  fellow-citizens  as  soon  as  our 
numbers,  wealth  and  activity  arrested  attention  by  the  building 
of  churches,  convents  and  schools.  These  outbursts  of  malignant 
hate  and  fear  were  like  to  the  upheavings  of  volcanoes ;  slumbering 
for  years,  suddenly  masses  of  fire  and  burning  stones  shoot  into 
the  air,  and,  falling,  roll  in  hot  streams  down  the  side  of  the 
mountain,   carrying  devastation  in   their  path. 

The  angry  passions  engendered  by  persistent  onslaughts  in  press 
and  pulpit,  outrageous  calumnies,  unmanly  insinuations,  fearful 
forebodings  and  warnings  of  evil  to  come  upon  the  country 
at  a  time  when  it  was  struggling  into  existence,  prepared  the 
minds  of  bigots  for  barbarous  deeds.  Maria  Monk's  "  Disclosures,"  as 
the  utterances  of  an  abandoned  woman  were  called,  the  stock  in 
trade  of  venal  book-publishers  and  fanatical  parsons,  deceived  and 
led  astray  many  who  honestly  desired  to  live  at  peace  with  their 
neighbors.  The  riots  and  burnings  of  1834  were  the  outcome  of 
years  of  guilty  misrepresentation.  In  1844  politicians,  always 
dragging  their  nets  in  foul  waters,  thought  they  saw  political  cap- 
ital in  the  still  seething  religious  ignorance  and  prejudice  prevalent 
among   the    people.     The    bad    elements    already    existing   among    our 


166  si:e3ioi\^s  of  tub  third  plenary  council. 

own  population  had  been  considerably  augmented  by  recent  arrivals 
from  Europe,  too  ready  to  revive  in  America  the  religious 
wars  in  which  they  had  been  engaged  at  home.  The  Philadelphia 
riots,  church  burnings  and  murders  followed  as  a  consequence. 
Disturbances  in  other  parts  of  the  country  broke  out  at  the  same 
time  and  from  similar  causes.  The  riots  and  murders  of  1854 
were  akin  in  character  and  cause  to  those  of  1844 ;  they  had 
their  source  in  religious  rancor  and  political  scheming  trading  on 
the  passions  of  ignorant  bigots.  There  were  no  riots  in  18G4. 
The  civil  Nvar,  just  ending,  had  put  a  stop  to  the  diabolical  ma- 
chinations of  bigots  and  politicians.  Men  who  had  stood  shoulder 
to  shoulder  in  the  hour  of  danger,  who  had  rested  side  by  side 
under  the  shelter-tent,  had  learned  forbearance  and  mutual  respect, 
and  to  treat  with  contempt  the  old-time  calumnies  and  all  who 
uttered  them.  The  politician's  objection  to  Catholics  because  they 
were  foreigners  was  valid  as  against  Columbus  in  the  mind  of  the 
aboriginal  natives,  and  will  end  only  when  America  forgets  the 
hospitality  she  owes  to  the  down-trodden  of  the  world,  and  which 
the  progenitors  of  her  citizens  of  to-day  had  received  in  their 
turn.  The  reign  of  insults  and  wrongs  that  lasted  from  1830 
to  1860  proved  a  formidable  hindrance  to  the  advance  of  the 
Church.  The  timid,  the  ill-instructed,  the  ambitious,  the  vain, 
feared  to  belong  to  a  body  of  so  little  esteem  in  the  world's 
eye,  and  fell  away.  Fanaticism  and  proselytism  worked  hand  in 
hand.  Money  was  lavishly  spent  in  perverting  the  minds  of  the 
young.  The  spenders  of  it  thought  that  they  were  doing  God's 
work.  Because  the  enemies  of  the  Church  arc  not  working  on 
the  same  lines  to-day,  it  is  not  to  be  inferred  that  the  battle  is 
over,  and  that  all   danger   has  passed. 

But  the  main  cause  of  defections  must  be  looked  for  in  the 
years  from  1784  to  1834,  and  be  attributed  to  the  scarcity  of 
priests  and  churches.  Bishop  England,  of  Charleston,  in  a  letter  to 
the  Society  of  the  Propagation  of  the  Faith  in  France,  estimated 
these  losses  at  three  millions  and  a-half  at  the  time  of  his 
writing,  in  1839.  He  gives,  however,  no  trustM'orthy  data  on  which 
to  base  such  a  conclusion,  and  I  cannot  but  consider  it  as  greatly 
exaggerated.  Yet  it  must  be  confessed  that  the  number  of  those 
that  lost  the  faith,  or,  that  having  no  means  of  hearing  the  "Word 
of    God    and    of    receiving    the    helping    graces    of    the    sacraments, 


THE  CATIIOLIG  CHURCH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.         167 

lapsed  into  indifference,  is  startlingly  great.  Even  when  parents 
never  apostatized,  their  chiklren  succumbed  to  the  influence  of  their 
surroundings,  and  learned  to  despise  and  deny  the  belief  and  prac- 
tices of  their  parent's  religion  through  the  adverse  and  malignant 
pressure  of  companionship  and  daily  intercourse  with  revilers  of 
Catholic  doctrines.  Social  seductions  and  fashions  overmaster  the 
young  and  lead  them  captive.  When  mixed  marriages  in  such  con- 
ditions of  society  intervened  to  increase  the  danger,  the  children 
had  no  hope  and  were  invariably  lost.  AVithout  Catholic  lessons 
at  home,  with  neither  Church  nor  priest  to  teach  and  support 
them,  they  fell  an  easy  i)rey  to  the  vigilant  and  zealous  labors 
■of  the  enemies  of  the  Catholic  Church.  In  spite  of  all  disadvan- 
•tages  and  losses  from  peculiar  and  unavoidable  evils,  the  Church 
made  headway.  The  French  emigrant  priests  driven  to  our  shores 
by  the  revolution  of  1789  were  men  of  learning  and  piety.  They 
had  passed  through  the  fires  that  try  men's  souls.  Their  zeal 
•was  unbounded,  and  their  success  was  marked  in  holding  many 
Catholics  to  the  practice  of  religion  and  in  winning  the  esteem  and 
good  will  of  non-Catholics  whose  antagonism  they  disarmed. 
Chevereux  and  Matignon,  Dubois  and  Brute,  Flaget  and  his  com- 
panions in  the  West,  Dubourg  in  the  South,  and  the  Sulpicians 
who  chose  Baltimore  for  their  field  of  labor,  performed  noble  work 
and  laid  broad  and  solid  foundations.  Nor  should  we  forget  to 
ispeak  a  word  of  praise  of  the  Society  of  the  Propagation  of  the 
Faith,  established  in  Lyons,  whose  generous  and  unfailing  pecuniary 
lielp  came  to  the  assistance  of  the  American  Church  in  her  days 
of  struggling  infancy.  It  was  this  help  which  set  a-going  dioceses 
and  institutions  and  enabled  bishops  and  priests  to  live  while 
seeking   after    the    wandering    sheep    of  a    widely    scattered    flock. 

By  1834,  after  fifty  years  of  faithful  perseverance  under 
most  trying  difficulties,  the  Church  of  the  United  States  Avas  able 
•to  show  an  archbishop,  eleven  bishops,  two  hundred  and  fifty 
priests,  about  thirty  colleges  and  academies,  but  not  a  dozen 
parochial  schools  for  the  half  million  Catholics  who  comprised  our 
population  at  that  time.  This  exhibit  may  not  strike  one  as  very 
xemarkable,  but  its  merits  should  be  judged  by  the  greatness  of 
the  sacrifices,  the  zeal  of  the  laborers,  their  small  number  and 
limited   resources. 

Between    1830   and    1850   the    tide   of    immigration    began    to   set 


168  seemoj^s  of  the  third  plenary  council. 

ia  strongly.  Poverty,  famine  and  revolutions  swelled  the  crowds  of 
fleeing  emigrants.  Disasters  at  sea  and  long  voyages  could  not 
hold  back  men  and  women  whose  hearts  were  turned  toward  the 
promised  land.  The  first  immigrants  coming  in  large  numbers 
were  from  Ireland.  Of  all  the  peoples  of  Europe  they  were  the 
best  fitted  to  open  the  way  for  religion  in  a  new  country.  Brave 
by  nature,  inured  to  poverty  and  hardship,  just  released  from  a 
struggle  unto  death  for  the  faith,  accustomed  to  the  practice  of 
religion  in  its  simplest  forms,  cherishing  dearly  their  priests  whom, 
they  had  learned  to  support  directly,  actively  engaged  in  building 
humble  chapels  on  the  sites  of  ruined  churches  and  in  replacing 
altars,  they  were  not  appalled  by  the  wretchedness  of  religious 
equipments  and  surroundings  in  their  new  homes  on  this  side  of 
the  Atlantic.  The  priest  was  always  the  priest,  no  matter  where 
they  found  him,  or  from  what  country  he  had  come ;  the  Mas& 
was  always  the  Mass,  no  matter  where  it  was  offered  up.  They 
had  liv'ed  among  the  bitterest  of  foes  and  had  never  quailed  or 
flinched ;  misrepresentations  and  calumnies,  sneers  and  scorn,  made 
no  impression  on  their  faithful  hearts.  Men  who  prefer  death  to 
denial  of  Clirist  are  not  cowards  or  traitors.  In  such  a  school 
of  discipline  they  had  been  trained  to  do  missionary  work.  They 
and  their  descendants  have  not  in  a  new  hemispliere  unlearned 
the  lessons  taught  at  home. 

Quickly  following  the  Irish  came  the  Germans  from  all  parts  of 
the  fiitherland.  They,  too,  were  a  sturdy  race,  able  to  hold  their 
own.  Many  of  them  had  also  known  persecution  for  religion's 
sake ;  most  of  them  remembered  the  stories  of  bloody  times  which 
had  come  down  to  them  among  the  traditions  of  their  hearths. 
They  were  prompt  to  rival  their  Irish  brethren  in  building  up  the 
Church.  At  home  they  had  their  old  parish  churches,  with  the  chants 
and  ceremonial,  which  lend  to  religion  much  that  is  consoling  and 
instructive.  The  religious  traditions  and  glories  of  the  old  land 
they  have  sought  to  emulate  in  this.  Better  than  all,  they  have 
stood  fast  by  the  duty  of  maintaining  Christian  schools  for  Chris- 
tian children.  There  is  much  that  they  can  copy  from  the  Irish, 
and  much  that  the  Irish  can  learn  from  the  Germans.  Both  have 
bravely  led  the  way  in  the  Church's  march.  All  the  other  nation- 
alities of  Europe  can  kneel  at  their  feet  and  imbibe  salutary  and 
profitable  lessons. 


THE  CATHOLIC  CHURCH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  169 

Before  proceeding  to  account  for  losses  to  the  Church,  even  dur- 
ing tliis  favorable  period  from  1834  to  1884,  a  brief  summary  of 
statistics,  as  found  in  Sadlier's  Directory,  will  show  at  a  glance 
what    has    been    accomplished   in    church    work. 

A  Cardinal  of  the  Holy  Roman  Church,  the  Most  Eminent 
and  Illustrious  Archbishop  of  New  York ;  an  Apostolic  Delegate, 
the  Most  Reverend  and  Illustrious  Metropolitan  of  this  See  of 
Baltimore ;  thirteen  other  archbishops,  and  coadjutor  archbishops, 
and  sixty-one  bishops  and  vicars  apostolic  rule  over  God's  Church 
in  this  republic ;  6,835  priests,  under  the  leadership  of  these 
successors  of  the  Apostles,  in  7,763  churches  and  chapels,  feed 
their  flocks  with  the  bread  of  life  and  devotedly  care  for  their 
souls.  In  708  seminaries,  colleges  and  academies,  the  higher 
education  of  clerics  and  of  the  youth  of  both  sexes  is  carried 
forward  by  learned  professors  and  accomplished  nuns.  Many 
thousands  of  brothers  and  sisters,  of  all  the  teaching  orders  and 
communities,  assist  these  priests  and  jierform  a  part  that,  without 
their  services,  would  be  left  undone.  Our  orphans,  the  aged,  the 
abandoned,  are  sheltered  in  294  asylums,  and  our  sick  are 
nursed  in  139  hospitals.  The  crowning  glory  of  the  Church's 
work,  however,  is  derived  from  her  success  in  providing,  not  for 
the  exceptional  members  of  her  household,  the  few  who  are 
bereaved,  sick  and  helpless,  but  for  the  many  who  constitute  her 
army  of  able,  active  and  self-maintaining  members.  For  the  children 
of  the  Catholic  community,  for  the  offspring  of  the  parents  who 
build  churches,  asylums  and  hospitals,  she  has  within  these  fifty 
years  built  and  she  now  sustains  2,532  Christian  schools,  in  which 
secular  learning  is  imparted  without  sacrificing  instruction  in  the 
belief  and  observances  which  the  Lord  commanded  His  Apostles 
and  their  successors  to  preach  to  the  end  of  time.  During  the 
year  1883,  481,834  pupils  frequented  these  Christian  schools,  built, 
fostered  lovingly  and  supported  for  the  people's  children  without 
aid  from  the  State.  The  charity  which  comes  to  the  relief  of  the 
sick  and  the  fatherless  is  beautiful  indeed,  and  the  blessing  of 
heaven  falls  hourly  on  those  who  tend  and  those  who  help;  but 
the  duty  of  instructing  the  many,  the  hope  of  the  future,  cannot 
be    omitted    without    punishment    in    this    world    and    the    next. 

The  Directory  estimates  the  Catholic  population  at  6,623,176. 
It    is    easy   to    see    that    these   figures    are    not    based     on    correct 


170  SEE3I0NS  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

information.  The  editor  fulfills  his  task  in  accurately  counting 
up  the  numbers  sent  to  him.  But  estimates  of  population,  year 
after  year  the  same,  in  rapidly  growing  dioceses,  must  be  at 
fault  for  they  are  clearly  wide  of  the  mark.  An  estimate  that 
Avould  place  our  Catholic  population  at  eight  millions,  would,  in 
my  judgment,  not  be  far  from  the  truth.  A  few  years  lience, 
with  priests  in  abundance,  having  pai'ishes  restricted  within  terri- 
torial limits,  so  that  a  pastor  may  be  able  to  know  his  parish- 
ioners, and  when  baptisms,  marriages  and  deaths  are  faithfully 
recorded  and  reported,  it  may  be  possible  to  reckon  our  numbers 
without    guessing. 

The  dry  figures  here  submitted  for  consideration  give  no  ade- 
quate idea'  of  the  amount  of  work  performed  during  these  fifty 
years.  They  do  not  tell  of  the  sacrifices  of  the  poor  people  who 
furnished  the  money,  often  drawing  out  of  purses  all  but  empty ; 
they  do  not  tell  that  the  stone  church  of  to-day,  monumental  in  size 
and  beauty  of  architecture,  replaced  an  humbler  one  of  brick,  which 
in  its  turn  had  displaced  the  first  modest  wooden  structure ;  they 
do  not  tell  that  driven  by  State  monopoly  in  school  teaching,  up- 
held by  unlimited  expenditures  of  money  from  the  public  treasury, 
Catholics  are  forced  to  make  their  school  buildings  and  furniture 
unnecessarily  expensive  and  grand ;  that  needless  costliness  is  forced 
upon  them  to  maintain  the  honor  and  good  name  of  their  schools 
in  the  face  of  State  extravagance ;  they  do  not  tell  that  the  bur- 
den and  the  cost  of  these  churches  and  schools  have  for  the  most 
part  fallen  on  poor  people  and  poor  priests ;  they  do  not  tell  of 
the  many  priests  that,  broken  in  health  and  spirit,  sank  into 
untimely  graves,  victims  to  toil  of  body  and  anxiety  of  mind 
more    than    nature    could    endure. 

Again,  the  bald  figures  summing  up  the  number  of  cathedrals, 
churches,  colleges,  convents,  etc.,  do  not  convey  an  idea  of  the 
character  of  these  edifices.  There  are  among  them  edifices  which 
Europe  of  modern  days  cannot,  equal  in  size,  grandeur  and  com- 
pleteness. What  has  Europe  to  place  by  the  side  of  the  New  York 
cathedral  as  her  contribution  to  church  building  in  the  nineteenth 
century?  Look  at  the  seminary  buidings  at  Overbrook,  Baltimore, 
Boston;  at  our  collegiate  buildings  in  the  East  and  in  the  West ; 
at  convents  and  monasteries  innumerable ;  at  our  charitable  institu- 
tions.    These  arc   not   State   buildings    erected    with   money  from  the 


THE  CATHOLIG  CHURCH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  171 

■State  treasury.  The  people's  pence  and  the  personal  sacrifices  and 
savings  of  priests,  brothers  and  nuns  have  built  them.  Not  much 
help  has  come  from  our  rich  members.  They  testify  what  can  be 
accomplished  by  a  believing  flock  when  untrammelcd  by  govern- 
mental interference.  Free  and  unhampered,  upheld  by  the  fidelity 
and  generosity  of  the  masses  of  her  children  in  Christ,  growth 
-and  prosperity  have  marked  the  course  of  the  Church  along  every 
line  of  work — in  every  agency  and  force.  If  material  and  intellec- 
tual America  can  point  with  exultation  of  soul  to  its  marvellous 
accomplishments,  so  can  spiritual  and  intellectual  Catholic  America 
hold  up  its  head  as  not  unworthy  of  its  predecessors  in  the  faith 
in  any  country  and  in  any  age.  If  non-Catholic  America  can  with 
just  pride  call  attention  to  its  colleges  and  universities,  the  noblest 
of  modern  times  in  wealth  of  endowments,  the  gifts  to  learning  of 
its  millionaire  friends  and  patrons,  so  can  Catholic  America  bespeak 
•consideration  for  what  zeal,  devotion  and  the  generosity  of  the  poor 
have  brought  into  existence.  In  this  study  of  successful  work  we 
must  ever  keep  in  mind  who  Avere  the  workers  and  what  was 
the    treasury    from   which    the    required   millions    were    drawn. 

With  the  proof  here  presented  of  large  and  substantial  growth, 
giving  well-founded  hope  of  continuance  and  permanence,  the  Catho- 
lics of  the  United  States  can  face  their  brethren  in  any  quarter 
of  the  world  and  bid  those  whose  surroundings  are  at  all  like 
ours  to  compare  work  with  work,  success  with  success,  loss  with 
loss.  We  frankly  admit  that  we  have  not  always  held  our  own. 
But  we  in  America  do  not  take  reproof  from  our  brethren  in 
Europe  with  amiability  and  good  grace.  Many  of  the  Christians 
they  have  turned  out  on  our  shores  have  not  been  models  of  piety 
and  holiness;  nor  does  the  light  of  faith  burn  brightly  in  their 
souls.  They  accept  the  services  of  religion  as  a  compliment  to  the 
priest  rather  than  as  a  necessary  fulfillment  of  duty.  They  must 
be  helped  rather  than  be  a  help.  Thousands  already  perverted  by 
the  soul-destroying  influences  of  secret  societies  and  the  demoral- 
izing notions  of  socialism,  so  prevalent  in  Europe,  impede  our 
onward  course.  Our  humble  Catholics  are  amazed  at  the  loose- 
ness of  principles  in  the  hearts  of  many  who  come  to  us,  and  are 
disedified.  We  cannot  but  ask :  Are  there  no  losses  to  the  Church 
on  the  other  side  of  the  ocean?  Corrupted  in  faith  and  morals 
before  they  leave  home,  they  bring  corruption  with  them. 


172  SEE3I0^^'S  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

The  hindrances  to  our  growth  in  the  first  half  of  the  century  , 
were  not  unknown  in  the  second  half.  The  one  which  came  from 
the  low  social  standing  of  Catholics  in  most  parts  of  the  country, 
little  by  little  yielded  to  claims  that  could  not  be  ignored. 
Wealth,  education  and  refinement  asserted  their  rights.  Political,, 
commercial  and  professional  pre-eminence,  in  many  quarters,  told  in 
our  favor.  Members  of  our  Church  were  of  marked  distinction  in 
every  walk  of  life — on  the  bench,  at  the  bar,  in  the  medical  pro- 
fession, in  the  army  and  navy — wherever  brightness  of  intellect  and 
capacity  for  work  are  needed  they  are  to  be  found.  Even  in  the 
political  arena,  while  their  religious  connection  does  not  advance 
their  interests,  it  is  ceasing  to  be  an  actual  impediment,  and  it  is 
discovered  that  political  punishment  for  religious  belief  is  becoming 
a  dangerous  experiment. 

AVhilc  all  admit  that  the  social  status  of  our  numbers  has- 
changed  for  the  better  in  cities  and  towns,  it  is  highly  satisfactory" 
to  know  that  in  rural  and  agricultural  districts,  where  so  many 
of  our  body  are  found  to-day  and  where  their  homes  will  be 
greatly  multiplied  in  the  future,  our  farmers  and  their  families  win 
the  respect  due  to  their  worth  and  useful  citizenship.  They  can- 
not be,  nor  are  they,  despised.  When  known,  they  advance  in  the 
esteem  of  their  neighbors. 

Misrepresentations  and  evil  reports  still  are  heard,  but  news- 
papers that  care  for  their  reputation  do  not  repeat  fiilse  charges 
that  will  not  be  believed  by  their  readers.  Fair  play  and  a  love 
for  the  truth  on  the  part  of  non-Catholics  have  put  a  stop  to- 
low  abuse  of  their  neighbors  and  associates  in  business,  whom 
they  know  to  be  honorable  and  upright  men,  and  whose  wives  and 
daughters  they  know  are  pure,  gentle  and  amiable.  The  people's 
good  sense  reformed  pulpits  and  newspapers. 

Church  contentions  and  squabbles,  having  their  origin  in  a 
faulty  understanding  of  the  rights  and  duties  of  the  clergy  and 
laity  in  the  management  of  temporalities  and  money  transactions, 
have  led  to  heavy  losses.  When  the  century  began  men's  minds 
were  warped  by  non-Catholic  ideas  with  regard  to  the  tenure- 
of  ecclesiastical  property.  It  was  thought  that  the  freedom  and 
independence  in  political  affairs,  common  in  the  country,  should 
extend  to  church  matters.  Good  Christians  were  easily  led  astray 
by    one    or   two    cunning   and   infidel    minds    in   a    congregation.     Ant 


THE  CATHOLIG  CHURCH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.         173 

occasional  mistake  or  blunder  on  the  part  of  an  ecclesiastic  served 
ivs  an  excuse  for  fault-finding.  But  in  what  other  profession  or 
in  what  other  line  of  commercial  and  monetary  transactions  have 
the  mistakes  been  so  few  and  tlie  failures  so  infrequent?  And 
when  ecclesiastics  have  blundered  in  business  concerns,  has  it  not 
been  because  other  responsibilities  than  those  rightly  within  the 
sphere  of  their  work  have  been  assumed  by  them?  The  better 
to  understand  the  cogency  of  this  argument,  it  is  no  more  than 
just  to  remember  that  hundreds  of  millions  have  passed  under 
the  control  and  use  of  priests  within  the  half  century.  It  is 
simply  a  marvel  that  in  the  handling  and  disbursing  of  these 
large  sums  of  money  so  little  has  been  lost  and  so  seldom  have 
pastors  forfeited  the  confidence  of  their  flocks.  Pastors  can  do 
nothing  without  the  co-operation  of  their  parishioners,  and  soon 
learn  that  a  wise  appreciation  of  the  rights  of  those  who  freely 
open  their  purses  at  the  call  of  religion  or  charity  best  secures 
a  generous  response.  Both  then  work  hand  in  hand  for  God's 
glory;  the  frictions  incidental  to  human  nature  are  little  noted, 
and  the  few  in  a  congregation  who  are  ill-disposed  find  no  encour- 
agement from  the  majority.  This  well-ordered  and  happy  condition 
of  church  management,  based  on  the  proper  consideration  of  the 
rights  and  duties  of  priests  and  people,  is  a  gratifying  note  of 
stable   growth. 

It  is  often  remarked  that  a  country  which  does  not  furnish  a 
supply  of  priests  for  its  altars  will  lose  the  faith.  This  saying 
oannot  be  predicated  of  a  new  land  into  which  thousands  and 
hundreds  of  thousands  are  year  by  year  flowing.  These  immigrants 
must  bring  their  priests  with  them.  But  when  the  newly  arrived 
families  have  had  time  to  settle  down  in  their  new  homes  the 
developing  of  vocation  begins.  No  one  fosters  piety  and  zeal  for 
God's  honor  in  a  child's  soul  like  a  devout,  God-fearing  mother. 
You  cannot  have  homes  in  which  the  Christian  virtues  are  culti- 
vated without  vocations  to  the  priesthood  and  the  religious  life. 
In  our  young  republic  vocations  abound.  Our  preparatory  and 
theological  seminaries  are  filled  with  promising  aspirants  to  the 
work  of  the  sanctuary ;  our  convents  are  thronged  with  holy  virgins 
bringing  to  the  service  of  religion  whatever  of  bodily  strength, 
intellectual  capacity  and  devotion  of  soul  they  have  to  oifer  and 
that   can   be  used.     Our    schools  would   be   empty   buildings   but   for 


174  SFBJIOXS  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

the  armies  of  teaching  Brothers  and  Sisters  who  fill'  so  well  the- 
office   of  instructors.     Here,  too,   is  evidence   of  fiiith  and  stability. 

Christian  families  demand  Christian  schools.  The  father  and 
mother  most  exact  in  the  religious  education  of  their  children  are 
the  most  earnest  in  providing  Christian  schools.  Their  own  efforts 
to  teach  their  young  ones  convince  them  of  the  necessity  of  the 
every-day  school  to  supplement  and  enforce  their  words  and  lessons^ 
Parents  who  rarely  give  a  lesson  to  their  children  are  the  loudest 
in  protesting  against  schools  strictly  Catholic.  They  do  not  know 
the  value  of  a  child's  soul,  often  as  they  may  have  heard  that  Christ- 
died  to  save  it. 

Scarcely  had  the  work  of  building  churches  for  our  rapidly 
increasing  population  been  taken  in  hand  by  priests  and  people 
than  a  yet  heavier  task  was  imposed  on  them.  Churches  might 
suffice  for  the  elders  of  the  flock,  who,  trained  to  religion  in  a 
Catholic  atmosphere  at  home,  could  neither  be  cajoled  nor  deterred 
from  its  practices ;  but  what  was  to  become  of  children  growing 
up  in  an  atmosphere  not  simply  innocuous,  but  positively  dangerous 
and  hurtful.  Bishops  and  priests  were  most  unwilling  to 
add  to  the  burden  already  weighing  down  their  congregations. 
They  sought,  as  well  in  justice  they  might,  that  a  portion  of 
their  own  money  paid  to  the  State  might  come  back  to  them. 
Unkindly,  rudely,  contemptuously,  their  reasonable  request  was 
spurned.  Politicians  and  parsons  were  our  fiercest  antagonists. 
When  passions  are  aroused  it  is  useless  to  argue.  The  passions 
of  a  nation  cool  slowly.  There  were  some  Catholics  who  hoped 
that  an  education  purely  secular  might  be  made  to  answer.  No 
doubt  it  will  give  to  the  children  -of  secularists  the  husks  of 
education — all  they  ask.  They  wonder  that  Catholics  seek  for  more. 
They  cannot  comprehend  our  doctrine  that  the  school  for  the  child 
is  as  necessary  as  the  church  for  the  parent.  Without  further 
argument  or  dispute,  but,  nevertheless,  grieving  and  groaning  under 
the  wrong  put  upon  us  by  process  of  law  and  tlie  vote  of  the 
majority.  Catholics  gathered  their  children  into  their  own  schools, 
that  therein  they  might  breathe  a  Catholic  atmosphere  while 
acquiring  secular  knowledge.  Without  these  schools,  in  a  few 
generations  our  magnificent  cathedrals  and  churches  would  remain 
as  samples  of  monumental  folly — of  the  unwisdom  of  a  capitalist 
who    consumes    his    fortune  year    by   year   without    putting    it    out   at 


THE  CATHOLIC  CHURCH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  175 

interest  or  allowing  it  to  increase.  The  Church  has  lost  more  in 
the  past  from  the  want  of  Catholic  schools  than  from  any  other 
cause  named  by  me  this  evening.  The  2,500  schools,  with  a  half 
million  of  scholars,  which  now  bless  our  country,  tell  Catholics  and 
non-Catholics  that  the  question  of  religious  education  is  settled,  so 
far  as  we  are  concerned.  The  good  work  so  well  advanced  will 
not  halt  until  all  over  the  land  the  children  of  the  Church  are 
sheltered  under  her  protecting  care.  The  establishment  of  these 
schools  and  their  improvement  in  management  and  instruction  is 
our   surest   guarantee    of  future    growth   and    fixedness. 

The  gross  exaggerations  of  writers  who  substitute  imaginings 
for  facts,  in  asserting  that  millions  upon  millions  of  our  Catholic 
people  have  lost  their  faith,  are  not  deserving  of  much  notice. 
The  immigrant  who  landed  on  our  shores  faced  two  dangers  which 
affi'ighted  him.  If,  in  the  early  days  of  our  history,  he  sought 
a  home  out  in  the  agricultural  districts,  there  was  neither  churcli 
nor  priest ;  if,  deterred  by  dangers  to  his  faith  from  settling  on 
farm-land,  he  clung  to  cities  and  factory  towns,  he  lived  without 
a  home  and  his  children  perished  in  infancy,  victims  to  the  mis- 
eries of  tenement-life.  The  immigrants  of  to-day  can  find  healthful 
homes  in  all  parts  of  the  United  States  near  to  churches,  schools 
and  priests.  They  have  no  excuse  for  settling  far  from  a  church 
or   from    a    neighborhood    that    will    soon    be    blessed   with    one. 

I  bring  to  a  close  my  allotted  task.  No  one  more  than  my- 
self feels  how  inadequately  it  has  been  executed.  Compressing  so 
extensive  a  subject  into  a  small  compass  has  been  difficult.  Memory 
goes  back  to  early  days  in  our  history.  My  first  lessons  in  re- 
ligion came  from  some  who  were  among  the  pioneers  of  the 
Church  in  our  country.  My  first  years  of  priesthood  were  spent 
as  a  missionary  in  New  Jersey.  While  journeying  through  this 
district,  hunting  up  the  stray  sheep  of  the  fold,  the  experience 
was  acquired  that  without  churches  and  schools  our  children,  and 
especially  those  of  mixed  marriages,  would  be  lost.  No  doubt  every 
missionary's    experience    has    been    the    same. 

But  what  a  change  since  those  days !  There  were  among  the 
first  bishops  and  priests  men  who  conceived  and  planned  great 
things  for  the  Church's  welfare ;  their  plans  when  enunciated  seemed 
visionary,  the  speculations  of  dreamers,  of  impracticable  Avorkers. 
A   few    years    demonstrated    that     their    plans     were    insufficient   and 


176  SUMMONS  OF  TEE  TEIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

too  restricted  for  the  wants  of  the  country.  We  plan  to-day  with 
the  light  of  the  past  to  guide  us.  Another  generation  may  smile 
at  our  narrowness  of  vision  and  weakness  of  heart. 

A  noble  duty,  worthy  of  a  man's  labor  and  life,  the  building 
up  of  Christ's  Church  in  a  great,  growing  and  free  republic,  falls 
to  our  lot.  God  and  country,  most  dear  to  us,  claim  love  and 
service.  It  is  for  us  to  help  say  to  the  world  that  government 
of  a  free  people  by  the  people,  whose  conceptions  of  morality  are 
based  on  God's  law,  can  safely  be  entrusted  to  the  people,  and 
that  this  largeness  of  trust  gives  ample  scope  to  the  Christian's 
ambition  in  furthering  a  sacred  cause.  No  man's  help  is  beneath 
consideration.  The  humblest  layman,  the  very  child  in  the  school, 
their  capable  and  devoted  teachers,  they  who  pray  in  cloisters,  mis- 
sionaries who  live  in  the  saddle,  priests  who  minister  in  crowded 
cities,  professors  in  our  seminaries,  bishops  who  rule,  have  each  and 
every  one  a  part  to  take.  What  glowing  words  of  praise  may 
justly  be  spoken  in  commendation  of  our  predecessors!  They 
fought  the  good  fight,  they  laid  a  solid  foundation,  they  showed  the 
way,  they  illustrated  their  teachings  by  their  lives.  Let  us  not 
prove  unworthy  of  them  and  their  examples. 


lit.  Iter.  L.M.Ftnk,D.D. 


lit.  Rev.  John  B.  Brondel,  D.l).  Most  Rev.  J.  B.  Salpointe,  D.l). 


Hi.  li'ev.  iJdwanl  Filzcjerald,  D,D.  m.  Rev.  R.  tSeidenbusli,,  D.l). 


Rt.  Rev,  T.  L.  Grace,  D.D. 


tit.  Rev.  M.  iMartij,  D.Ik 


Rt.  Rev.  James  O' Connor,  D.D. 


III.  Rev.  J.  J.  Hogan,  D.D. 


%l\it  $mxfm  4  tl}^  M^^^^ 


SERMOH  OF  RIGHT  REY.  E.  FITZGERALD,  D.D., 

BISHOP   OF   I.ITTLE    ROCK,   ARK. 


"For  Christ,  being  present  a  High.  Priest  of  the  good  things  to  come,  by  a 
greater  and  more  perfect  tabernacle  not  made  with  hands,  that  is,  not  of  this 
creation :  neither  by  the  blood  of  goats  nor  of  calves,  but  by  His  own  blood, 
entered  once  into  the  sanctuary,  having  obtained  eternal  redemption." — Heb., 
c.   ix,   V.   11-12. 

BEHOLD  I  am  with  you  all  days  even  to  the  consummation  of  the 
world."  The  abiding  presence  of  Christ  in  His  Church,  my 
l)rethren,  may  be  considered  from  two  points  of  view.  We  may 
regard  it  as  the  Mind  enlightening  her  and  guiding  her  unto  all 
trath;  or  as  the  Heart  giving  her  life,  strength,  courage.  Of  Christ 
regarded  as  the  Light  of  His  Church,  you  have  heard  several 
times  these  days  past  from  this  pulpit;  for,  if  the  Church  teaches 
with  infallible  authority  and  if  we  are  bound  to  listen  to  her 
voice  it  is  because  He  is  with  her,  and  "  whosoever  hears  her 
hears  Him."  Of  Christ,  the  Life  of  His  Church,  ever  present 
with  her  in  the  sacraments,  but  more  especially  in  the  Sacrifice 
of  the  Eucharist,  which  is  the  Heart  of  Catholic  worship  and 
action,  I  shall  offer  you  a  brief  consideration  this  morning ;  for,  as 
the  heart  receives  and  again  distributes  the  vital  current  throughout 
the  bodily  frame,  so  from  the  Holy  Sacrifice  of  the  Mass,  wiiich 
is  one  with  the  cross,  do  wa  receive  all  grace  and  strength,  and 
through  it  do  we  pay  back  to  God  that  worship  of  adoration, 
])raise,  thanksgiving,  prayer  and  expiation  which  we  owe  to  Him. 
The  Mass,  the  highest  act  of  our  worship,  is  most  sacred  in  the 
eyes  of  the  Catholic  for  what  it  is  in  itself;  and  for  the  ven- 
erable ceremonies  with  which  the  Church  has  environed  it  as  a  gem 
in    its   setting.     Even    to   the    non-Catholic   it   will  be    a   subject    of 

12  (177) 


178  suhmons  of  the  third  plenary  council. 

great  interest  If  he  reflects  that  it  is  the  public  worship  of 
400,000,000  of  civilized  people  on  the  face  of  the  globe  to-day; 
and  that  for  1500  years  it  Avas  the  public  worship  of  his  fore- 
fathers,   no    less    than    of    ours. 

I  will  go  farther  and  lay  down  a  proposition  which  may  be  a 
little  startling  at  first,  but  which  I  hope  to  make  clearer  as  we 
proceed :  that  while  the  Mass  is  eminently  the  Christian  sacrifice,, 
it  is  also  in  a  certain  sense  the  sacrifice  of  all  ages,  and  has. 
been    offered  up    uo    God    from  the    "  constitution   of    the    world." 

There  is  a  modern  view  of  God  and  of  His  relations  with 
mankind — one  high  in  fiivor  A^ith  certain  modern  physicists — that 
God  (if  there  be  a  God)  when  He  created  this  universe  (if  the 
universe  was  created)  gave  to  nature  certain  fixed  and  unchange- 
able laws,  which  He  Himself  cannot  transgress.  The  Creator  thus 
becomes  the  slave  of  His  own  laws ;  He  has  no  freedom  of 
action  in  the  creation  which  is  the  Avork  of  His  hands ;  and 
everything  is  reduced  to  tlie  law  of  inflexible,  mechanical  necessity. 
Such  a  God  is  not  the  God  of  hupianity.  The  instincts  of  the 
human  race  are  more  philosophical.  They  tell  us  of  a  God  who 
has  not  renounced  His  freedom  of  action  in  the  creation ;  who 
manifests  Himself  to  man  in  a  manner  suited  to  man's  own  free 
will  and  rational  nature ;  who  is  more  human,  as  it  were ;  and 
whom,  therefore,  we  may  approach ;  move  by  prayer  and  oblation  j 
and  when  offended,  propitiate  by  sacrifice.  This  view  of  God's 
relations  with  His  rational  creatures — and  who  shall  say  that  it  is 
not  more  reasonable? — lets  in  at  once  the  supernatural,  if  that 
can  be  called  supernatural,  which  is  after  all  only  natural  in 
man's  present  and  actual  condition.  For  the  Church  teaches — the 
traditions  and  instincts  of  humanity  bear  her  out — tliat  man  never 
existed  on  this  earth  in  a  purely  natural  condition ;  that  from  the 
very  beginning  he  was  elevated  to  the  supernatural  state ;  a 
supernatural  destiny  was  set  before  him,  and  the  means  given  him 
to  attain  it.  Man  fell ;  but  even  in  his  fall  retained  a  dim  per- 
ception   of    his    first    estate : 

For  even  in  savage  bosoms 

There  are  longings,  yearnings,   strivings, 

In   the   good  they  comprehend  not. 

He  is  a  prodigal  from  liis  Father's  house,  who  has  dissipated  his 
goodly   inheritance,    and    fallen    so    low    as    to    contend    with    swine 


THE  SACRIFICE  OF  THE  31  ASS.  179 

for  the  husks  of  existence;  but  who  in  his  uttermost  degradation 
still  retains  a  consciousness  of  what  he  has  lost ;  feels  that  some- 
how the  Great  Father's  heart  goes  out  to  him  as  to  none  of  His 
insensible  or  irrational  creatures ;  and  he  longs  to  return,  and,  throw- 
ing himself  at  his  Father's  feet,  win  back  his  forgiveness.  Only  on 
this  principle  docs  the  universal  custom  of  prayer  become  intel- 
ligible— for  who  would  pray  to  a  God  who  could  not  be  moved? — 
of  oblation,  which  is  the  outward  embodiment  of  prayer ;  of  sacri- 
fice, which  is  the  expression  of  the  need  of  expiation ;  and  of  the 
universal  belief,  though  often  expressed  in  the  most  grotesque 
forms,  in  an  incarnation  of  the  Deity.  Christianity  tells  us  the 
meaning  of  the  half-utterances  of  the  pagan  world.  They  are  the 
attempt  of  the  human  soul,  "naturally  Christian,"  to  grasp  and  give 
expression  to  the  great  truths  of  the  primitive  revelation:  and  in 
this  broad  sense  we  may  say  that  all  religions  are  one :  for  the 
"unknown  God  whom  you  worship  without  knowing  is  what  I 
preach  to  you,"  says  the  Apostle,  "God,  who  made  the  world  and 
all  things  that  are  in  it,  .  .  .  .  who  giveth  life  and  breath, 
and  all  things,  ....  hath  made  of  one,  all  mankind  to  dwell 
upon   the   whole  face    of  tlie    earth."     (ActSj    xvii,    23,    et    seq.) 

Yes,  my  brethren,  in  all  ages  mankind  prayed  and  "  sought 
God,  if  haply  they  may  feel  after  Him :  although  He  be  not  far 
from  any  of  us."  (Acts,  xvii,  23.)  But  man  also  felt  the  need  of 
giving  outward  body  and  expression  to  the  spirit  of  prayer. 
Hence  the  act  of  oblation,  or  the  offering  to  heaven  of  the  ele- 
ments of  food  and  drink  (usually  bread  and  wine),  by  which  life 
is  sustained,  as  symbolizing  the  belief  that  we  owe  our  life  to 
the  sustaining  hand  of  our  Greater.  Hence,  also,  the  universal 
practice  of  sacrifice.  Man  felt  he  had  sinned ;  the  traditions  of 
the  Fall  are  found  everywhere.  Therefore  the  need  of  expiation, 
and  of  expiating  through  the  awful  rite  of  the  shedding  of  blood. 
This  was  always  and  everywhere  regarded  as  the  highest  act  of 
worship.  The  idea  of  it  appears  to  be  this :  that  life  is  a  direct 
emanation  from  the  Deity.  (I  do  not  mean,  of  course,  from  His 
substance,  but  from  His  power  or  virtue ;  though  undoubtedly 
many  of  the  pagans  believed  the  former).  The  body  is  subject  to 
the  ordinary  laws  of  matter,  and  of  itself  tends  to  dissolution.  A 
more  direct  recognition  of  God's  power  over  life  and  death  is 
made   therefore    when    the    blood   of  the    victim    is    shed    before    the 


180  SERMONS  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

altar,  and  the  gift  of  life  is  again  given  back  to  heaven  by  the 
sacrificial  act.  And  if  we  go  back  to  the  beginnings  of  the  human 
race,  Ave  may  gather  the  necessity  of  sacrifice  from  the  pages  of 
the  inspired  volume.  Cain  and  Abel  offered  victims,  the  one  of 
the  first  fruits  of  the  earth,  the  other  of  the  firstlings  of  his 
flock.  The  patriarchs  Abraham,  Isaac,  Jacob,  Melchisedech,  wor- 
shiped in  this  manner,  and  their  worship  was  accepted  by 
heaven.  The  pagan  nations,  as  has  been  said,  enlightened  by 
primeval  traditions,  or  obeying  that  law  written  on  the  fleshly 
tablets  of  their  hearts,  sacrificed  to  their  idols,  which  they  took 
for  the  true  God.  Everywhere  in  ancient  times,  and  no  less  in 
modern  times,  even  among  the  heathen  tribes  do  you  find  the 
altar,  and  the  priest,  and  the  knife,  and  the  smoke  of  the  sacri- 
fice ;  nay,  in  some  nations,  so  strangely  had  the  light  of  nature 
been  dimmed,  the  awful  rites  of  human  victims  offered  in  sacri- 
fice were  the  only  ones  supposed  to  be  capable  of  appeasing  the 
anger   of  an  offended  deity. 

In  like  manner  when  mc  come  to  the  history  of  the  chosen 
people  we  find  God  Himself  carefully  and  zealously  prescribing 
the  quality,  manner,  number  and  place  of  the  various  sacrifices 
which  He  would  be  pleased  to  accept  from  their  hands,  as  may 
be  seen  from  Leviticus  and  Deuteronomy,  and  indeed  from  their 
whole  history  up  to  the  time  of  Christ.  We  may,  therefore, 
conclude,  as  it  has  always  been  observed,  that  sacrifice  belongs  to 
the  essentials  of  religion ;  and  therefore  that  Me  Christians  to-day 
must  "have  an  altar  of  which  they  cannot  cat  who  serve  the 
tabernacle." 

For,  my  brethren,  as  the  old  dispensation  in  its  entirety  was 
only  provisional  and  a  promise  of  "  better  things  to  come,"  we 
must  conclude  that  the  chiefest  part  of  its  worship,  sacrifice, 
gave  way  to  a  greater  and  higher  act  of  w'orship,  which  sliould 
give  meaning  to  what  was  only  prefigured  by  the  ancient  rites. 
The  ancient  rites  were  temporary,  shadows  of  coming  events, 
symbols  which  had  no  meaning  of  themselves,  and  apart  from  the 
things  which  they  symbolized.  They  had  no  virtue  or  efficacy  in 
themselves,  except  as  referring  to  another  and  completing  sacrifice. 
"  For  it  is  impossible  that  with  the  blood  of  goats  and  of  oxen 
sins  should  be  taken  away,"  says  the  Apostle,  "  for  if,"  he  says 
again,   "  the   blood   of  goats   and  of  oxen   and   the   ashes   of  a  heifer 


THE  SACRIFICE  OF  THE  MASS.  181 

being  sprinkled  can  sanctify  such  as  are  defiled,  how  much  more 
shall  not  the  blood  of  Christ  clean  our  conscience  to  serve  the 
living  God?"  (Heb.,  ix,  13.)  As  though  he  should  say,  God  is 
pleased  to  accept  the  sacrifices  which  you  offer,  all  nothing  as 
they  are,  because  they  symbolize  the  shedding  of  the  blood  of  the 
great  Victim  through  whom  we  are  saved.  Being,  therefore,  in 
their  own  nature  temporary,  the  sacrifices  of  the  Old  Law  were  to 
cease ;  which  is  further  shown  by  the  destruction  of  the  temple  or 
place  of  sacrifice.  With  the  abolition  of  the  old  sacrifices,  therefore, 
the  world  would  be  left  without  "  an  offering  for  sin,"  except  we 
have  a  Christian  sacrifice,  which  the  Catholic.  Church  believes  and 
teaches    to   be    the    Mass. 

This  was  also  clearly  foretold  by  the  jn-ophet  Malachias.  In  this 
well-known  passage  (Mai.,  i,)  the  prophet  foretells :  1.  That  the 
ancient  sacrifices  would  cease  to  exist.  2.  That  for  the  many  of 
of  the  Old  Law,  one  would  be  substituted.  3.  That  this  would  be 
offered  not  in  the  temple,  but  everywhere.  4.  That  it  would  be 
offered  by  people,  not  of  Jewish  lineage  only,  but  of  Gentile 
blood  as  well.  "Where  is  the  prophecy  fulfilled  if  not  in  the 
Mass  ? 

Again,  our  Lord  is  styled  by  St.  Paul  a  priest  according  to 
the  order  of  Melchisedech,  which  has  no  meaning  except  Ave  admit 
the  Mass,  which,  under  the  forms  of  bread  and  wine,  Melchisedech's 
oblation,  contains  the  victim  of  salvation.  Anil  in  the  Acts,  the 
Apostles  are  described  as  "  serving  the  Lord,"  a  word  being  used 
which  signifies  sacrifice ;  and  again  St.  Paul,  contrasting  the  Christian 
altar  with  the  Jewish,  plainly  shows  that  we  have  a  Christian 
sacrifice,  which  Avere  not  true  if  we  have  not  the  sacrifice  of  the 
Mass.  This,  therefore,  is  the  culmination  of  the  figures  of  the 
Old  Law,  the  fulfillment  of  the  prophecies,  as  the  Church  teaches, 
and  as  has  been  held  by  her  from  the  beginning.  Plerc  is  one 
High  Priest ;  here  one  Victim ;  here  the  altar  of  propitiation  for 
the    sins    of  the   living    and    the    dead. 

But,  how  ?  Or,  in  other  words,  what  is  the  Mass  ?  I  do  not 
know  that  I  can  answer  in  better  language  than  that  of  the  little 
catechism  :  "  The  sacrifice  of  the  Body  and  Blood  of  Christ  which 
are  really  present  upon  our  altars,  and  are  offered  to  God  for 
the  living  and  the  dead.  The  sacrifioe,  because  it  is  an  oblation 
of  a   victim   to    God    by  a  lawful  priest,   to   represent   by  the  act  of 


182  SURMONS  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

oblation  and  the  slaying  or  other  destruction  of  the  victim/'  His 
supreme  dominion  over  life  and  death.  The  egsence  of  sacrifice 
does  not,  however,  cease  in  oblation,  otherwise  every  oblation 
would  be  a  sacrifice,  which  is  not  true.  Neither  in  the  slaying 
of  the  victim,  otherwise  every  killing  would  be  a  sacrifice.  It  con- 
sists rather  in  the  symbolism  of  the  act,  by  separating  the  blood, 
"  which  is  the  life,"  from  the  body  of  the  victim,  and  laying  it  on 
the  altar.  In  what  more  expressive  way  can  tbe  sacrificing  priest 
show  forth  the  utter  dependence  of  man  upon  God  for  his  life 
and    everything   in  life   which   he    possesses  ? 

"  Of  the  Body  and  Blood  of  Christ,  w^iicli  are  really  present  on 
our  altars,  and  are  offered  up  to  God  for  the  living  and  the  dead." 
Our  faith  teaches  us  that  by  a  wonderful  condescension  Christ  gave 
to  the  priests  of  His  Church  the  power  of  drawing  Him  down 
from  heaven  and  placing  Him  on  our  altars ;  or,  if  transforming 
the  Bread  and  Wine  of  the  Sacred  Mysteries  into  His  adorable 
Body  and  Blood,  God  obeys  the  voice  of  a  man,  and  at  his  call. 
He  who  annihilated  Himself  in  taking  our  human  nature  and  in 
bearing  the  ignominy  of  the  cross,  again  conceals  the  majesty  of 
His  Divinity  under  the  appearance  of  a  morsel  of  bread  and  a 
few  drops  of  wine.  I  am  not  arguing  the  question  of  the  Real 
Presence  this  morning,  my  brethren.  I  will  but  say  that  Chris- 
tianity were  not  Christianity  if  it  had  no  mysteries ;  that  He  who 
changed  water  into  wine  at  Cana  of  Galilee  can  change  bread  and 
wine  into  His  Body  and  Blood ;  that  it  is  not  harder  to  believe 
the  Mystery  of  the  Real  Presence  than  that  of  the  Incarnation 
or  adorable  Trinity;  indeed,  I  might  go  farther,  and  say,  than 
many  of  the  mysteries  of  nature  with  which  we  are  surrounded. 

The  Body  and  Blood  of  Christ,  who  was  broken  for  us,  who 
was  nailed  to  the  cross,  are  present  on  our  Christian  altars ;  and 
the  priest  sacrifices  them,  that  is,  makes  an  offering  or  presenta- 
tion of  them  to  God  the  Father  for  the  living  and  the  dead. 
The  Mass  is  therefore  identical  with  the  sacrifice  of  Calvary.  It  is 
the  same  Victim,  offered  by  the  same  High  Priest,  Jesus  Christ, 
through  the  ministration  of  His  visible  priesthood,  to  the  same  God 
and  for  the  same  purposes  of  sacrifice.  But  while  Calvary  was  a 
bloody  sacrifice,  this  is  an  unbloody  one;  while  the  former  was 
an  absolute  sacrifice,  this  is  representative.  TJiat  is,  while  Christ 
really   died    for    us    on    Calvary,  and    with    that    "  one    act    of    obla- 


THE  SACRIFICE  OF  THE  MASS.  183 

tion  perfected  forever  them  who  were  to  be  saved,"  this  presents 
anew  His  death  as  symbolized  by  the  separate  consecration  of  the 
elements  of  bread  and  wine,  and  His  atonement  through  death; 
while  on  Calvary  He  offered  Himself,  here  He  is  offered  through 
His  minister.  Perhaps  our  meaning  will  be  more  clear  if  we 
compare  the  Mass  with  the  Old  Law  sacrifices.  They  had  no 
virtue  or  efficacy  of  themselves,  as  St.  Paul  declares,  (Heb.,  ix,  13), 
<'for  it  is  impossible  that  the  blood  of  goats  and  oxen  should  take 
away  sin."  Yet  they  were  efficacious,  because  they  related  to  Calvary; 
they  were  the  preliminary  steps  to  Calvary;  they  were  Calvary,  in  a 
word,  being  all  integral  parts  of  the  one  supreme  act  of  which  Cal- 
vary was  the  completion  and  perfection.  As  therefore  the  ancient 
sacrifices  availed  as  representative  of  and  a  part  of  Calvary  yet  to 
come,  so  the  Mass,  but  in  a  much  higher  sense,  avails  as  repre- 
sentative and  part  of  Calvary's  sacrifice,  made  eighteen  hundred 
years  ago ;  and  in  a  higher  sense,  for  in  the  ancient  sacrifices 
you  had  only  shadows,  figures,  symbols — "  weak  elements."  Here 
you  have  the  reality,  the  thing  symbolized,  the  very  Victim  Him- 
self, the  very  Body  that  was  broken  and  the  very  Blood  which  was 
shed  for   us ! 

Bat  in  all  this,  my  brethren,  we  are  using  human  language 
and  speaking  of  things  as  they  present  themselves  to  our  human 
vision  and  apprehension.  We  speak  of  eighteen  hundred  years 
ago ;  of  Calvary,  of  other  places.  To  God  there  is  no  time  nor 
place ;  no  succession  of  minutes,  and  hours,  and  days,  and  years, 
and  centuries ;  no  distance  of  place  from  place,  but  one  simple, 
single  act ;  and  one  ever  presence  everywhere.  In  His  eyes, 
therefore,  the  Mass  is  not  a  repetition  or  re-presentation  of  Calvary, 
as  we  have  called  it  in  our  human  way.  To  Him  Calvary  is 
everywhere  and  always  present.  We  cannot  understand  this ;  but 
even  modern  science  may  be  used  to  give  us  an  insight  into  the 
mysteries  of  heaven.  Distance  has  been  annihilated  in  respect  to 
sound  by  the  telephone,  and  in  respect  to  time  by  the  phono- 
graph, so  that  with  the  aid  of  these  two  instruments  one  can 
hear  the  identical  voice  of  another  though  hundreds  of  miles  and 
hundreds  of  years  may  separate  them.  It  is  said,  with  Avhat 
truth  I  do  not  know,  that  an  instrument  has  been  invented  which 
will  do  for  light  what  the  instruments  mentioned  do  for  sound, 
and   that   the   identical   rays    of  light  proceeding  from  a  given  body 


184  SBBMOJVS  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

may  be  transmitted  to  a  distance  of,  say,  one  thousand  miles.  If 
this  be  so,  and  I  would  not  say  it  is  impossible  in  this  age  of 
marvels,  time  and  distance  are  annihilated;  and  I  may  be  heard 
and  seen  in  hundreds  of  places  and  at  the  same  moment  hun- 
dreds of  miles  apart!  Truly  a  marvel  of  human  invention!  What 
must  it  be,  tlicn,  with  the  mysteries  of  heaven?  And  while  we 
shall  never  fully  comprehend  it,  we  may  see,  as  it  were  in  a  glass 
darkly,  how  the  one  act  of  sacrifice  on  Calvary  in  the  eyes  of  God 
is  not  yet  a  thing  of  the  past,  or  of  distant  Judea,  but  one,  ever- 
lasting and  ever-present  oftering  up  of  the  "  Lamb  that  was  slain 
from  the  constitution  of  the  world." 

Therefore  we  have  in  the  Mass  a  sacrifice  Avhich  not  only 
completes  the  figur^^s  of  the  ancient  sacrifices  of  the  people  of 
God,  but  also  enables  us  to  understand  the  struggles  of  the  Gen- 
tile world  to  give  expression  to  the  hereditary  religious  feelings  of 
the  race,  all  overlaid  as  they  were  by  the  errors  and  impurities 
of  the  pagan  worship  and  superstition.  It  is  Christ,  the-  expec- 
tation of  the  Gentiles,  and  the  hope  of  the  people  of  Israel,  again 
and  again  pleading  His  wounds,  sufferings  and  blood  for  us ;  once 
indeed,  and  once  only,  shed,  but  ever  bleeding,  an  open  fountain 
for  the  redemption  of  the  sinner,  and  "  making  peace  through  the 
blood  of  His  cross,  both  as  to  the  things  that  are  on  earth,  and 
are  in  heaven,"  (Col.  i,  20) ;  and  the  Lamb  whom  we  offer 
here  below,  is  the  same  Christ  who,  sitting  at  the  right  hand  of 
the  Father,  makes  continual  intercession  for  us.  The  Mass  here 
below  is  the  counterpart  of  the  heavenly  Jerusalem.  The  sacred 
ministers,  the  lights,  the  incense  are  but  the  reflection  of  the 
supernal  glory,  and  a  visible  representation  of  that  majesty  of  God 
which  no  man  may  look  on  and  live.  And  now  lift  up  your 
eyes  higher  —  sursum  corda:  "I  saw  a  new  heaven,"  says  the 
inspired  Apostle;  "I  saw  the  holy  city,  the  new  Jerusalem, 
coming  down  from  God  out  of  heaven."  Perhaps  this  very  church 
is  heaven !  Heaven  is  not  a  place.  It  is  wherever  God.  and  His 
blessed  spirits  are.  Oh,  I  see  this  church  in  which  we  are  assem- 
bled filled  Avith  the  brightness  of  the  heavenly  Jerusalem,  for  the 
Lamb  that  was  slain  from  the  foundations  of  the  world  is  the 
light  thereof.  I  see  here  His  throne,  and  under  the  throne  the 
bodies  of  the  martyrs,  which  are  the  prayers  of  the  saints ;  and 
in   the    attendants    of    the   altar    I   see    the    four-and-twenty    ancients 


THE  SACRIFICE  OF  THE  MASS.  185 

Avho  minister  unto  Him ;  and  in  the  sheen  of^  the  sacred  vest- 
ments I  see  the  radiance  of  the  celestial  hosts;  and  in  the  chant 
I  hear  the  song  of  the  angels ;  and  in  this  throng  of  devout  wor- 
shipers I  see  the  twelve  thousand  sealers  of  each  of  the  twelve 
tribes  of  Israel,  and  that  immense  multitude  whom  no  man  could 
number  of  all  nations,  and  tribes,  and  peoples  and  tongues,  stand- 
ing before  the  throne,  and  in  the  sight  of  the  Lamb  clothed  with 
white  robes,  and  palms  in  their  liands,  and  saying :  "  Amen,  bene- 
diction and  glory,  and  wisdom,  and  thanksgiving,  honor,  power  and 
strength  to  one  God  for  ever  and  ever.     Amen."     (Ap.  vii.) 

Brethren,  I  am  not  drawing  on  imagination ;  I  am  stating  the 
sober  facts.  The  heavenly  spirits  are  not  visible  to  our  mortal 
eyes ;  but  they  are  here,  and  encircling  this  altar  which  God  has 
made  His  throne  and  are  visible  to  the  eye  of  faith.  Can  we 
believe  this,  believe  that  we  so  nearly  touch  God,  and  yet  go  on 
in  our  old  ways?  Believe  that  the  drama  of  Calvary  is  re-enacted 
in  this  place,  and  before  our  very  eyes,  and  yet  come  so  cold, 
and  undevout,  and  perhaps  with  the  burden  of  our  irrepentance 
on  our  hearts  ?  Believe  this  to  be  the  "  Mountain  of  the  Lord," 
and  His  holy  place,  and  yet  presume  to  come  whither  only  the 
"  innocent  of  hand,  pure  of  heart  may  ascend  ? "  "  Can  man 
see  God  and  live  ? "  Can  anything  defiled  enter  heaven  ?  Oh, 
pray  God  we  may  be  cleansed.  Sprinkle  me,  O  Lord,  with  hys- 
sop and  I  shall  be  cleansed;  wash  me,  and  I  shall  be  made 
whiter  than  snow.  And  thus  cleansed  and  free  from  every  defile- 
ment, "  we  may  go  with  confidence  to  the  throne  of  grace ;  that 
we  may  obtain  mercy,  and  find  grace  in  seasonable  aid."  (Heb., 
Sv,    16.) 


SERMOU  OF  RIGHT  REY.  J.  L.  SPlLDIHa.  D.D., 

BISHOP   OF   PEORIA,    ILL. 


THE  practice,  wliicb,  with  us,  has  now  grown  to  be  national,  of 
appointing  one  day  in  the  year  for  general  thanksgiving  to  God, 
the  Creator  and  Giver  of  all  good,  has  seemed  to  the  Fathers  of 
the  Third  Plenary  Council  of  Baltimore  consonant  with  the  princi- 
ples of  faith  and  witli  tlie  promptings  of  the  heart  of  a 
Christian  people,  and  they  have,  therefore,  determined  to  recog- 
nize and  commend,  in  a  public  and  solemn  way,  a  custom 
which  declares  our  dependence  upon  God,  both  as  a  nation  and 
as  individuals,  while  it  tends  to  strengthen  the  sjjirit  of  gratitude 
and  to  increase  our  confidence  in  His  all-wise  and  Fatherly  Prov- 
idence. The  appeal  made  by  the  civil  authorities  of  our  country, 
requesting  all  citizens  to  cease  from  work  and  business  on  this 
day,  and  to  raise  their  thoughts  to  God,  while  they  bring  to 
mind  the  great  and  numberless  blessings  which  He  continues  to 
shower  upon  them  and  their  country,  is  a  call  to  which  we 
gladly  hearken.  The  duty  of  religious  thankfulness  is  constantly 
urged  by  the  Church,  and  in  this  age,  when  many  call  in  ques- 
tion the  good  of  life,  even  when  most  fortunate,  we  should  more 
than  ever  cherish  the  spirit  of  gratitude,  which  springs  from  the 
faith  and  feeling  that  God  is  all  good  and  merciful,  and  that 
life  is  a  blessing  even  to  the  most  wretched,  if  they  look  to 
Him  and  walk  in  the  ways  of  His  Commandments.  Surely  we, 
whether  as  Catholics  or  as  Americans,  can  never  lack  reasons  for 
thankfulness. 

In    common   with    all    other    Americans,    we    have    here    a    home 

186 


THANKSGIVma  DAY.  187 

and  a  country,  in  which  we  enjoy  the  rights  of  freemen,  and 
opportunities  to  use  the  powers  which  God  has  given  us  in  a 
way  never  before  granted  to  men,  nor  offered  to  them  now  even, 
except  in  America.  Whatever  fills  the  hearts  of  our  fellow-coun- 
trymen with  joy  and  pride  when  they  contemplate  the  marvelous 
growth  and  ever-increasing  prosperity  of  our  common  country,  sends 
-also  a  thrill  of  gladness  through  our  Catholic  hearts.  We  join 
with  them  in  looking  with  delight  upon  this  noblest  experiment  in 
self-government  ever  made  by  men.  We  feel  a  common  joy  in 
the  thought  that  we  have  grown,  within  a  century,  from  three 
millions  to  fifty-five  millions  of  people,  from  an  obscure  and 
almost  unknown  people,  to  one  of  the  most  powerful  and  influen- 
.tial  nations  of  the  earth.  Our  prodigious  wealth,  our  unrivalled 
success  in  developing  the  almost  inexhaustible  resources  of  our 
■country,  our  popular  cities  which,  by  tens  and  twenties,  have 
sprang  np  as  by  the  enchanter's  w-and,  our  numberless  happy 
homes,  where  men  of  every  race  and  every  tongue  enjoy  the 
blessings  of  liberty  and  peace,  under  the  sway  of  wise  and  just 
laws,  are  to  us  sources  of  gratitude  and  joy,  not  less  than  to 
-other  Americans.  When  we  reflect  that  we,  the  freest  of  peoples, 
have  probably  the  most  stable  government  in  the  world,  that 
the  terrible  conflict,  the  seeds  of  which  were  planted  like  an  in- 
herited taint  in  our  blood,  and  which  arrayed  in  fierce  battle  half 
^he  States  against  the  other  half,  has  only  served  to  strengthen  the 
bonds  of  national  unity,  and  to  bring  the  whole  people  into  fuller 
harmony  with  the  great  principles  which  underlie  our  civil  con- 
stitution ;  our  belief  in  the  sublime  destiny  of  our  country  is 
strengthened,  and  we  look  with  higher  hopes  and  sercncr  confi- 
dence to  the  future.  We  are,  in  a  word,  a  part  of  this  great 
people,  and  whatever  is  good  for  our  country  is  good  for  us. 
This  New  World  was  discovered  by  a  great  and  deeply  religious 
Catholic  hero.  Catholics  were  the  first  to  proclaim  and  put  in 
practice  here  the  principles  of  religious  toleration,  and  they  will 
he  the  last  to  renounce  or  to  violate  the  Christian  chart  of  free- 
dom of  conscience.  American  Catholics  shed  their  blood  for  our 
independence,  and  the  aid  which  we  received  from  Catholics  of 
'Other  lands  was  the  Providential  means  which  enabled  us  to  come 
forth  victorious  from  the  struggle  and  to  establish  ourselves  as  a 
free   and   separate   people. 


188  SEB210XS  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

Catholics,  who  bore  a  chief  part  in  tlie  founding  of  this  great 
republic,  must  ever  feel  that  it  is  their  duty  to  labor  to  make 
it  perpetual.  The  Church  holds  the  fulness  of  God's  supernatural 
bounties,  and  the  republic  His  richest  earthly  gift  to  His  children. 
Both  have  a  world-wide  mission  to  purify,  elevate,  ennoble  and 
enlighten  men,  to  free  them  from  slavery,  whether  of  soul  or  body, 
of  heart  or  mind.  The  republic  gives  liberty  to  the  Church,  the 
Church  strengthens  the  spirit  of  obedience  and  devotion  to  the 
republic,  and  both  co-operate  to  make  prevail  the  will  of  God, 
which  is  justice,  righteousness,  peace,  goodness.  There  is  a  natural 
harmony  between  the  Catholic  religion,  which  is  wide,  strong  and 
enduring,  and  the  character  of  a  great  and  free  people.  Among  a 
narrow  or  enslaved  race  its  action  is  narrowed ;  but  amid  half  a 
world  of  freemen  the  vigor  of  its  godlike  life  expands  and  pushes 
forth  in  every  direction.  Hence  it  is  in  the  nature  of  things  that 
Catholic  faith  should  make  headway  in  a  country  like    our  own. 

What  cause  for  thankfulness  have  we  not  when  we  recall  the 
progress  of  the  Church  in  America  during  the  last  hundred  years?' 
From  a  few  thousand  we  have  grown  to  be  eight  millions.  Then 
we  were  without  organization.  Now  this  solemn  council,  more- 
numerous  and  more  free  than  any  which  could  be  assembled  else- 
where, is  the  most  striking  evidence  of  our  perfect  organization^ 
Then  we  had  no  schools ;  now  nearly  half  a  million  children 
receive  instruction  in  Catholic  schools.  Then  churches  were  few 
and  poor ;  now  they  are  counted  by  thousands,  and  many  of  them 
are  monuments  to  the  taste  and  generosity  of  their  builders.  But 
I  may  not  stop  to  tell  the  story  of  the  rise  and  spread  of  the 
Church  in  the  United  States.  Like  the  growth  of  the  country, 
progress  has  been  so  rapid  and  so  manifest  that  words  but  enfeeble 
the   impression  stamped  upon  all  minds  by  the  facts  themselves. 

But  while  we  recall  the  blessings  and  privileges  which  God 
grants  us  as  Catholics  and  as  Americans,  let  us  bear  in  mind 
that  Avhat  we  most  need  is  not  wealth  or  numbers,  but  virtue, 
which  alone  can  prevent  the  bountiful  gifts  of  the  Creator  from 
becoming  dangerous  and  hurtful  to  us.  Only  they  are  truly 
grateful  who  seek  to  render  themselves  worthy  of  the  good  they 
receive,  and  only  in  this  way  can  we  have  the  well-founded  hope 
that  the  blessings  we  enjoy  shall  continue.  Morality  is  the  basis 
both  of  religion   and   of    civil   liberty,   and   if    the    Church    and   the 


THANKSGIVINa  DAY.  189 

country  are  to  remain  strong  and  free,  the  cause  of  virtue  and 
of  public  morality  must  find  in  us  earnest  defenders.  Let 
American  Catholics,  therefore,  ever  uphold  and  show  forth  in  their 
lives  the  great  principles  which  underlie  free  government.  Let 
them,  in  the  spirit  of  religion  and  of  self  respect,  lend  a  willing 
obedience  to  law  and  stand  on  the  side  of  those  who  seek  to 
correct  abuses  and  maintain  intact  the  practices  and  institutions 
which  are  the  outgrowth  of  Christian  faith,  and  which  have  been 
the  great  instruments  in  elevating  and  purifying  human  'conduct. 
Let  them  be  sober,  honest,  peaceful  and  true  to  all  the  obligations 
which  bind  them  as  members  of  the  Church  and  as  citizens  of 
a  free  country.  So  shall  they  become  less  unworthy  of  God's 
blessings  and  the  sense  of  gratitude  growing  from  year  to  year 
and  lifting  them  to  higher  and  nobler  life  will  make  them  more 
able  to  defend  both  the  cause  of  religion  and  the  cause  of 
patriotism   which    both   work   to    one    end. 


4  1 


SERMOI  OF  RiaHT  REY.  J.  J.  KEME,  D.D., 


BISHOP   CF   RICHMOKD. 


"As  the  body  is  one,  and  hath  many  members,"  etc. — /.  Cor.,  c.  xii,  v.  12-27, 

IN  the  discourses  addres'sed  to  us  since  the  opening  of  this  coun- 
cil, we  have  been  contemphxting,  in  its  various  phases,  the 
beauty  of  the  Church  of  God.  Reminded  this  evening  by  St. 
Paul  that  the  Church  is  the  Body  of  Christ,  and  knowing  that 
the  beauty  of  the  Body  of  Christ  is  the  beauty  of  our  Incarnate 
God,  we  understand  how  truly  it  was  said,  in  the  opening  dis- 
course, that  God  hath  put  upon  the  Church  His  own  beauty. 
And  this,  too,  is  the  sublime  thought  of  the  Prophet  Isaias,  who, 
foretelling  the  splendors  of  the  kingdom  of  Christ,  says  of  it : 
"They  shall  see  the  glory  of  the  Lord  and  the  beauty  of  our 
God."     (Is.,    XXXV,   2.) 

In  the  preceding  discourses  we  have  meditated  on  the  most 
glorious  and  exalted  constituents  of  the  Church.  We  have  con- 
templated its  divine  Head,  our  Lord  and  Saviour,  Jesus  Christ, 
from  whom  the  whole  body  receives  its  growth  and  its  life.  We 
have  reflected  on  its  divine  Spirit,  the  Holy  Ghost,  who  proceeds 
from  the  Father  and  the  Son,  and  who  has  been  bestowed  by  the 
Father  and  the  Son  to  be  the  soul  of  the  Church,  the  source  of 
its  unity,  its  infallibility,  its  holiness  and  its  perpetuity.  We  have 
considered  its  heart  and  arteries  and  life-blood — namely,  the  eternal 
priesthood  of  our  Lord,  poured  forth  through  the  priesthood  of 
the  New  Law,  and  sending  through  them,  by  its  own  divine  pulsa- 
tions, the  graces  of  His  redemption  to  every  soul  that  receives 
their    ministrations.     We   have   gazed    upon    the    majestic    symmetry 

190 


Very  Her.  J.  N.  Reinbolt,  S.F.M. 


Very  Rtv.  E,  F.  Schauet\  V.S.S.R. 


Very  JUr.  M.  li.  LiU.,,  u.l\ 


Very  liev.  A.  Magnien,  S.S. 


\ery  litv.  V.  Fvtirnur,  V.-'i  V. 


Very  Rev.  L.  Busharl,  S.J. 


Very  Rev.  John  B.  Ilogan,  S.S. 


Very  Rev.  V.  .1.  .UcFroi/,  O.s.a. 


Veiy  liev.  A.  M.  Gentile,  S.J. 


CATHOLIC  SOCIETIES.  191 

of  its  well-knit  frame,  the  perpetual  apostolic  hierarchy,  which 
Christ  our  Lord  formed  with  such  divine  art  and  endowed  with 
such  divine  strength,  that  it  stands  erect  with  the  vigor  of  per- 
petual youth  in  the  midst  of  a  changing  and  crumbling  world. 
And  we  have  seen  the  energy  which  it  puts  forth  to  turn  the 
lives  of  men  heavenward,  to  "  renew  the  face  of  the  earth,"  to 
pour  abroad  to  the  ends  of  the  world  the  glorious  sonship  of  the 
children    of  God. 

This  evening  the  words  of  the  holy  Apostle  invite  us  to  the 
consideration  of  an  humbler  theme,  but  not,  therefore,  less  import- 
ant, nor,  I  trust,  less  interesting.  He  tells  us  of  the  eye  and 
the  ear  and  the  foot  and  the  hand,  of  the  parts  of  the  body  which 
may  be  in  themselves  less  comely  or  less  honorable,  but  which 
all  share,  nevertheless,  in  the  dignity  and  comeliness  of  the  one 
same  body  of  which  they  are  members,  and  whose  functions,, 
though  humbler,  may  yet  be  very  important  and  even  essential 
to  the  well-being  of  the  body.  It  is  in  this  light  that  I  deem 
it  best  to  treat  the  subject  which  has  been  assigned  to  me  by 
the  Most  Reverend  Apostolic  Delegate,  namely,  "  Catholic  Societies."' 
There  is  too  often  a  tendency  to  view  societies  from  a  merely  or 
principally  utilitarian  stand-point.  But  the  data  in  a  utilitarian 
problem  are  very  fluctuating  and  its  conclusions  uncertain.  I 
prefer  to  view  the  subject  in  the  light  of  principles,  and  these 
the  principles  given  us  in  Holy  Writ.  I  invite  you,  therefore,, 
beloved  brethren,  to  reflect  with  me  on  the  life  of  the  laity,  the 
action  and  work  of  the  laity,  and  their  combination  in  associations 
for  the  better  realization  of  their  work — but  to  reflect  upon  it  all 
in  the  light  of  this  divine  fact,  that  the  laity  are  members  of 
the  Body  of  Christ,  that  their  legitimate  action  and  work  as 
Christians  is  a  participation  in  the  life  and  work  of  our  divine 
Head.  First,  therefore,  let  us  see  what  is  this  life  of  the  Body 
of   Christ. 

"Christ  came,"  says  St.  Paul  "to  be  the  second  Adam,  to  give 
life  to  a  dead  world."  "In  Him  was  life,"  says  St.  John;  and  He 
says  Himself,  "I  liave  come  that  they  may  have  life,  and  that 
they  may  have  it  more  abundantly."  This  life  which  lie  came  to 
bestow — His  own  divine  life — to  use  his  own  comparison.  He  com- 
municated to  His  members,  as  the  vine  coramuicates  its  life  to  its 
branches:    "I   am   the  vine;  ye   are   the   branches;"  or,    to   use  the 


192  SUBMOJS'S  OF  TUB  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

figure  of  St.  Paul,  as  the  members  live  by  the  life  of  the  body. 
It  is  the  life  of  God  poured  forth  on  His  creatures  through  the 
mystery  of  the   Incarnation. 

By  that  bestowal  of  the  life  of  God  He  renews  in  us  the 
image  and  likeness  of  God.  In  the  beginning  that  image  and  like- 
ness was  bestowed  on  man  through  the  divine  \Vord,  who  is 
declared  to  be  the  perfect  image  of  the  Father ;  and,  therefore, 
when  that  image  was  disfigured  in  man  by  sin,  it  was  the  same 
divine  Word  who  came  to  renew  it  in  us.  But,  now  think  what  it 
is  to  be  in  the  image  and  likeness  of  God.  God's  life  is  essentiallv 
■one  of  action.  He  is  called  by  the  great  theologians  "  actus  purissi- 
mits " — that  is,  "  most  pure  act."  This  means  that  in  God  there  is 
nothing  inert,  nothing  inactive.  Inertia  is  the  imperfection  of  finite 
things.  Therefore,  to  be  in  the  image  and  likeness  of  God,  is  to 
have  the  action  of  all  the  powers  of  our  nature  made  like  to  the 
action  which  is  the  life  of  God.  Let  us,  then,  look  further,  and 
see  how  this  can  be  and  what  it  means. 

We  can  view  tlie  action,  the  life  of  God,  in  two  ways — either  in 
His  own  being,  or  in  the  external  works  which  His  act  produces. 
To  see  that  action,  that  life,  that  beauty  of  God  in  Himself,  and 
in  its  full  clearness,  is  the  beatitude  of  heaven.  "Here,"  says  St. 
Paul,  "  we  see  through  a  glass  darkly ;  but  there,  face  to  fiice. 
Here  I  know  in  part ;  but  there  I  sliall  know  even  as  I  am 
known."  And  then  adds  St.  John:  "AVe  know  that  we  shall  be 
like  unto  Him,  because  we  shall  see  Him  as  He  is."  The  image 
and  likeness  of  God  shall,  then,  be  made  perfect  in  us  in  the  full 
presence  of  the  adorable  Original ;  and,  filled  with  the  overwhelming 
beatitude  of  that  vision  and  that  likeness,  our  whole  being  sliall 
eternally  breathe  forth  the  song  of  ecstacy,  "  Holy,  holy,  holy." 
Here  below  wq  see  that  life  of  God  in  Himself,  although  obscurely 
and  imperfectly,  through  divine  revelation,  througli  the  grace  of  fiiith, 
through  the  embrace  of  divine  love,  in  contemplative  prayer;  and, 
though  obscure  and  imperfect,  yet  so  far  is  even  this  sight  of  the 
life  of  God  in  Himself  above  all  the  sweetness  and  beauty  of  earthly 
things,  that  the  soul  is  forced  to  cry  out,  like  St.  Augustine,  "  Too 
late  have  I  known  Thee,  too  late  have  I  loved  Thee,  O  Beauty  ever 
ancient  and  ever  new  !  " 

The  second  way  of  viewing  God's  action  is  in  the  external 
works    which    it   has    produced.     Freely,    and    of    his    own    bounteous 


CATHOLIC  SOCIETIES.  193 

love,  God  gave  existence  to  the  universe  of  created  things. 
Everything  that  He  has  made  bears  the  stamp  of  God,  and  tells 
of  the  infinite  power,  the  infinite  wisdom  and  the  infinite  love 
which  gave  it  being.  St.  Augustine  exclaims :  "  God  hath  made 
the  mighty  angels  in  heaven  and  the  little  worms  in  the  earth ; 
and  He  is  not  more  wonderful  in  the  angels,  not  less  wonderful 
in  the  little  worms."  It  is  only  stunted  and  darkened  minds  that 
do  not  thus  see  God  in  His  works.  Let  me  illustrate  this  by  a 
■comparison.  We  all  know  how  beautifully  round  and  symmetrical  an 
orange  is,  notwithstanding  the  little  furrows  which  cover  its  surface. 
Now,  imagine  one  of  those  tiny  animalcules,  which  are  so  small 
that  they  can  be  discerned  only  by  the  aid  of  the  most  powerful 
microscopes,  trying  to  make  its  way  over  an  orange.  The  poor 
little  thing  would  find  itself  surrounded  with  mountains  which 
it  could  not  scale  and  abysses  which  it  could  not  bridge  over, 
and  it  would  seem  lost  in  a  chaos  of  confusion.  In  like  manner, 
to  minds  that  have  been  dwarfed  and  blinded  by  losing  or 
shutting  out  the  light  which  beams  from  the  face  of  God,  the 
universe  is  a  puzzle,  over  which  they  may  wail  like  poor  John 
Stewart  Mill,  or  curse  like  the  pessimists  of  our  day.  But,  to 
him  who  views  things,  as  holy  David  did,  in  the  light  of  Him 
from  whom  they  come,  the  universe  is  a  mirror  which  shows 
forth  the  beauty  of  God ;  all  things  declare  His  glory,  and  even 
the  shades  introduced  by  the  sin  and  folly  of  the  creature  only 
serve  to  enhance  the  glorious  light  of  the  picture,  and  blend  into 
the    beauteous    harmony    of    the    Creator's    wisdom,  justice    and    love. 

As  it  is  witli  the  life  and  action  and  beauty  of  God,  so  it  is 
'with  the  life  and  action  and  beauty  of  our  divine  Saviour.  We 
can  consider  them  either  in  Himself  or  in  His  works.  We  can 
contemplate  them  in  Himself,  pondering  with  adoring  gratitude  the 
wonders  which  constitute  the  mystery  of  the  Incarnation ;  or  we 
can  meditate  on  the  mighty  power  that  goes  forth  from  Him,  on 
the  beauty  and  grandeur  of  the  kingdom  of  God  which  He  has 
established    on    earth. 

So,  again,  it  is  with  the  Church.  We  may  view  her  life  and 
action  and  beauty  in  her  own  organism,  in  which  the  divine  action 
of  our  Lord  and  the  Holy  Ghost  is  so  wondrously  united  with 
the  human  action  of  her  ministry  and  her  members,  even  as  the 
divine    nature    and    the    human    nature    are    united    in    Christ,    her 

13 


194  SEEJIO^''S  OF  THE  THIRD  PLEXARY  COUNCIL. 

divine  Head ;  or  Ave  may  dwell  upon  the  admirable  work  whicb 
she  accomplishes  externally,  enlightening  the  world's  darkness,, 
purifying  the  world's  corruption  and  covering  the  earth  with  the 
fruits    of  civilization,   learning    and    holiness. 

And  so,  in  fine,  we  may  consider  the  divine  life  bestowed  on, 
each  Christian  soul.  We  may  stndy  its  interior  silent  growth  in 
the  beauty  of  faith,  hope,  charity  and  religion ;  the  more  and  more 
perfect  development  of  that  "  kingdom  of  God  which  is  within 
us ;"  the  higher  and  higher  advance,  as  on  the  ladder  of  Jacob's 
vision,  from  earth  and  earthiness  up  towards  the  bosom'  of  God,, 
and  the  greater  and  greater  perfection  of  its  likeness  to  Him  as- 
it  draws  nearer  to  Him.  Or  we  may  view  the  divine  life  within 
it  reaching  out  in  good  works— as  it  does  in  God  and  in  Christ  and 
in  the  Church — in  godlike  works,  that  is,  works  done  in  the  grace- 
of  God,  and  for  '  the  love  of  God,  and  by  the  promptings  of  the- 
Spirit    of  God,  and    after    the    example    of  Jesus,  the    Man-God. 

Philosophy  tells  us  that  it  is  through  created  things  that  reason 
comes  to  the  knowledge  of  the  Creator.  Thus,  too,  it  is  by  our 
external  godlike  works  that  the  life  of  God  Avithin  us  is  made  mani- 
fest; for  it  is  the  good  tree  which  must  bring  forth  good  fruit,  and 
which  is  known  by  its  fruit.  Tlierefore  does  St.  John  lay  down  the- 
jn'inciple  and  the  test:  "If  you  love  not  your  brother,  whom  you 
see,  how  can  you  say  that  you  love  God,  whom  you  see  not  ?"■ 
HencCj  also,  the  test  which,  our  divine  Lord  has  told  us,  shall  be 
applied  in  the  judgment — the  presence  or  absence  of  the  divine  life 
in  the  soul,  and  its  consequent  fitness  or  unfitness  for  heaven,  shall 
be  decided  by  its  having  done,  or  not  done,  the  godlike  works  of 
faith  and  charity.  For,  again,  life  is  action,  and  action  must  show 
itself  in  works. 

Thus,  beloved  brethren,  we  are  led  to  understand  clearly  that,  in 
the  divine  plan  of  creation,  the  image  and  likeness  of  God,  which 
was  bestowed  on  man,  was  to  consist  in  his  being  like  to  God,, 
not  only  in  the  spirituality  and  immortality  of  his  soul,  but  also  in 
the  noble,  holy  and  useful  external  works  in  which  his  being  was- 
meant  to  exert  itself.  Thus,  also,  we  understand  why,  in  the  plan 
of  divine  Providence  for  the  carrying  on  of  the  world's  life,  while 
the  Almighty  could  easily  supply  all  the  wants  of  all  His  crea- 
tures by  His  own  power  and  action  alone,  He  has  left  much  of 
the  work    to    man;    has   made  human   action  an  integral  part  in  the 


CATHOLIC  SOCIETIES.  195 

economy  of  His  Providence ;  has  ordained  that  the  welfare  of  His 
creatures  and  the  harmony  of  the  world  should  largely  depend  on 
the  right  or  wrong  action  of  men  towards  one  another,  in  order 
that  man  might  be  a  sharer  in  the  glorious  work  of  Providence, 
in  the  action  and  life  of  his  Creator.  And  hence  we  likewise 
understand  the  two  ends  for  the  realization  of  which  our  divine 
Lord  established  His  Church.  The  first  is  the  advancement  of 
souls  in  interior  holiness  and  perfection.  The  second  is,  the  direc- 
tion of  human  action  in  the  channels  which 'will  be  the  most  useful 
to  mankind  and  give  the  greatest  glory  to  God.  She  is  the  mother 
of  the  contemplatives,  whose  sublime  vocation  it  is  to  spend  their 
lives  in  closest  communion  with  God,  and  to  breathe  the  atmos- 
phere of  heaven  around  them  in  this  cold  earthly  world.  But  she 
is  also  the  mother  of  the  myriads  of  holy  toilers,  whose  labors 
have  transformed  the  face  of  the  earth ;  and  the  great  bulk  of 
her   saints    have    been    the    most    active    and    hardworked    of  men. 

I  remember  reading,  not  long  since,  of  the  daring  project  of 
some  one  who  wished  to  turn  the  momentum  of  Niagara  and  the 
other  cataracts  of  the  country  into  electric  force.  He  saw  in  the 
tremendous  rush  of  the  great  waterfall  a  mighty  jjower  that  was 
only  wasting  itself  in  churning  and  grinding  away  its  bed,  and 
he  asked  why  it  should  not  be  transformed  into  a  force  that  could 
be  used  for  lighting  and  heating  our  homes  and  moving  our  ma- 
chinery. In  like  manner,  the  Church  beholds  the  vast  amount  of 
human  activity  which,  all  the  Avorld  over,  is  lying  dormant,  or 
wasted  on  trifles,  or  spent  on  purposes  which  do  not  rise  above 
the  earth ;  and  her  desire  is  to  rouse  all  inertness  into  action, 
and  to  turn  all  action  towards  God — to  purify  it,  to  energize  it, 
to  direct  it  to  the  noblest  ends,  after  the  model  of  the  divine  Mas- 
ter, who  "  hath  given  us  an  example,  that  as  He  hath  done,  so  we 
also  may  do;"  in  a  word,  to  deify  it  by  transforming  it  into  the 
life  and  action  of  the   Body  of  Christ. 

Now,  one  of  the  chief  characteristics  of  God  and  of  His  works, 
is  unity.  As,  in  the  adorable  Trinity,  the  Father,  the  Son,  and 
the  Holy  Ghost,  while  distinct  in  Personality,  meet  in  the  unity 
of  the  divine  Being,  so  in  all  God's  works  the  endless  multitude 
of  things  is  everywhere  rounded  by  harmonious  order  into  the 
unity  of  the  divine  plan.  From  the  glorious  hierarchy  of  the 
angels,    down    to   the    shaping   of    a    crystal    or    the    organism    of  the 


196  SEBIIONS  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

tiniest  insect  that  floats  in  the  sunbeam,  all  action  is  orderly,  sym- 
metrical, the  tendency  everywhere  being  from  isolated  force  to 
combined  action,  and  to  shapely  organisms,  and  to  regnlar  classes, 
and  to  the  grand  order  of  the  universe.  So  it  is  likewise  with 
the  Church,  the  Body  of  Christ,  both  in  her  interior  life  and  in 
her  external  action.  Her  interior  life  of  faith,  hope,  charity  and 
prayer  takes  shape  in  her  majestic  liturgy,  culminating  in  the  ador- 
able Sacrifice  of  the  altar,  in  which  all  the  homage  and  supplications 
of  all  creatures  meet  in  the  one  masterful  homage  and  supplica- 
tion of  the  Immaculate  Lamb,  through  whom  all  find  acceptance 
before  the  throne  of  God.  And  the  outpouring  of  that  interior 
life  in  the  external  works  of  faith,  charity  and  zeal  of  all  her 
countless  members  obeys  the  same  divine  law  and  shapes  itself 
into  united  and  orderly  action  in  thousands  of  associations.  Let 
us    glance   at   these   associations   in   detail. 

First,  the  craving  for  Christian  perfection,  for  entire  consecra- 
tion to  God's  love  and  His  holy  service,  moulds  itself  into  the 
Church's  religious  orders.  Obedient  to  the  breathing  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  to  the  drawing  of  His  grace,  to  the  impulse  of  the  divine 
life  within  them,  thousands  upon  thousands  of  chosen  souls  in  all 
ages  leave  all  earthly  cares  and  ambitions,  to  liave  God  for  their 
only  portion  and  His  work  for  their  only  occupation.  The  influ- 
ence of  the  Holy  Spirit  gathers  and  unites  their  action,  under  the 
control  of  wise  rulers  and  holy  superiors,  and  the  garden  of  God 
blooms  with  the  harmonious  beauty  of  monastic  perfection.  The 
Carmelites  and  Carthusians  make  the  solitudes  of  earth  melodious 
with  their  chants  of  adoration  to  God  and  of  tender  love  to  the 
Virgin  Mother.  The  Benedictines  swarm  forth  from  their  con- 
vents like  a  mighty  army  of  zeal  and  love  to  conquer  a  barbarous 
and  heathen  world  to  civilization  and  to  God.  The  Franciscans 
cluster  around  the  Seraph  of  Assisi,  and,  set  on  fire  by  him  with 
love  of  Jesus  Crucified,  they  carry  the  sweet  example  and  the 
irresistible  power  of  our  Lord's  poverty,  humility  and  suiferings 
unto  the  ends  of  the  earth.  The  Dominicans  baud  together,  a 
great  phalanx  of  sacerdotal  learning  and  zeal,  to  win  a  heedless 
world  to  Christ  by  the  attraction  of  the  brilliancy  and  the  fervor 
symbolized  by  the  torch  of  their  illustrious  founder.  The  sons  of 
Ignatius  rally  around  the  chair  of  Peter  like  a  rampart  impreg- 
nable   to    all   the    attacks    of  error,  and  from  the   centre    of  religious 


CATHOLIC  SOCIETIES.  197 

life  they  carry  to  every  land  the  light  of  the  Gospel  and  the 
blessings  of  a  true  Christian  education.  And  so,  as  the  ages  roll 
on  and  the  needs  of  the  world  vdry  and  multiply,  we  see  a  St. 
Charles  Borromeo,  a  St.  Philip  Neri,  a  St.  Vincent  de  Paul,  a 
St.  Francis  de  Sales,  a  St.  John  of  God,  a  St.  Alphonsus,  a  St. 
Paul  of  the  Cross,  a  Father  Olier  and  other  such  giants  of 
ability,  holiness  and  zeal,  become  centres  of  attraction  for  chosen 
souls  and  mainsprings  of  concerted  action  for  great  and  noble 
ends.  And  we  see  thousands  upon  thousands  of  holy  men  and 
women  filled  with  cravings  and  aspirations  which  nothing  but  God 
could  satisfy,  rejoicing  to  leave  all  things  for  the  divine  Master's 
work,  and  gathering  according  to  the  direction  of  the  divine  impulse, 
around  one  or  another  of  these  providential  leaders,  shaped  for 
united  and  systematic  effort  by  wise  constitutions  and  rules,  con- 
secrated to  God  and  their  work  by  holiest  vows,  toiling  at  their 
allotted  tasks  in  the  earnest  fervor  of  that  consecration,  and  pouring 
the  healing,  comforting,  saving  ministrations  of  Christ  and  of  His 
Church  into  millions  and  millions  of  grateful   hearts. 

Then  we  see  the  same  divine  action  and  life  pervading  all  the 
ranks  of  the  laity,  moving  every  member  and  tissue  and  fibre 
of  the  Body  of  Christ,  rousing  them  to  holy  desires  and  efforts, 
combining  them  for  concerted  and  efficient  action,  and  making  the 
world  teem  with  organized  Christian  endeavor  for  good.  First  we 
see  the  laity  combining  for  distinctively  religious  ends  in  confra- 
ternaties  and  sodalities,  each  animated  by  some  special  prompting 
of  divine  love,  all  the  members  striving  to  increase  their  own 
fervor  by  their  united  devotion  and  to  kindle  the  sacred  fire,  as 
our  Lord  desires,  in  all  the  hearts  around  them.  Thus  the  devo- 
tion of  the  faithful  increased  towards  the  loving  heart  of  our  dear 
Lord,  towards  His  adorable  Sacrament,  towards  His  Immaculate 
Mother ;  and  by  the  example  of  saintly  patrons,  by  the  guidance  of 
wise  rules  and  pious  directors,  the  members  are  moulded  to  habits 
of  prayer,  to  the  frequentation  of  the  Sacraments  and  to  the  prac- 
tice of  Christian  virtues.  In  every  place  where  these  holy  associa- 
tions are  carefully  and  zealously  directed,  they  are  centres  of  piety, 
from  which  the  spirit  of  devotion  is  breathed  forth  into  every 
home  and  almost  into  every  heart  in  the  parish.  There  are  few 
parishes,  if  any,  that  do  not  need  them ;  there  are  none  that  are 
not    the    better    for    them.     And    the    same  may  be  said  of  individual 


198  SERMONS  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

souls.  There  are  very  few  that  are  not  greatly  helped  in  the  spiritual 
life  by  membership  of  some  well-conducted  sodality  or  confraternity, 
and  there  are  surely  not  many  who  can  honestly  say  that  they 
have  no  need  of  such  spiritual  aids.  We  live  in  a  world  that 
is  full  of  distractions  to  lead  our  minds  and  hearts  from  God, 
full  of  influences  that  chill  devotion  and  breed  distaste  for  prayer 
and  piety.  If  we  appreciate  this  fact,  and  if  we  recognize  that 
such  a  chilling  and  drying  up  of  the  soul  is  a  misfortune  to  be 
dreaded  and  guarded  against,  then  we  must  recognize  too  that  it 
is  a  wise  thing  to  seek  spiritual  help  in  these  pious  confraternities, 
nay,  that  it  should  require  very  good  reasons  to  excuse  one  from 
using  then\,  and  that  spiritual  laziness  is  certainly  not  such  a 
reason,    but    the    very    contrary. 

It  would  be  a  most  interesting  study,  did  time  permit,  to  see 
how  the  Providence  of  God  has,  in  successive  ages,  caused  the 
Church's  interior  piety  to  take  external  shape  in  one  or  another 
predominant  form  of  popular  devotion.  Thus,  in  our  own  age, 
when  the  rush  after  material  interests  makes  it  so  difficult  for  men 
to  find  time  and  heart  for  God,  it  has  been  the  divine  Will 
that  the  great  popular  devotion  should  be  that  to  the  Sacred 
Heart  of  Jesus,  the  adorable  furnace  of  holiest  love  for  God 
and  tenderest  love  for  men,  whose  contemplation  must  surely 
suffice,  if  anything  can,  to  keep  our  hearts  Avarm  and  tender 
and  faithful  towards  our  Saviour  and  God.  And  now  the  Provi- 
dence of  God  is  unlocking  that  Sacred  Heart,  that  we  may  under- 
stand whence  its  flames  proceed,  that  Ave  may  sec  that  its  love  is  the 
Holy  Ghost,  the  love  eternally  proceeding  from  the  Father  and  the 
Son,  and  finding  in  the  Sacred  Heart  of  Jesus  our  Mediator  the 
channel  through  Avhich  its  sweet  and  blessed  flames  are  poured 
forth  upon  mankind.  Thus  we  are  given  a  clearer  insight  into  the 
mysteries  of  the  Incarnation  and  the  Redemption,  and  are  animated 
to  a  more  intelligent,  a  more  interior,  a  more  truly  spiritual  piety. 
Hence  in  our  days  of  universal  aspiration  after  popular  enlighten- 
ment, filled  with  so  many  dangers  from  mistaken  science,  unspiritual 
aims  and  mere  externality  of  life,  even  among  good  people,  it  has 
pleased  God  to  breathe  forth  the  first  beginnings  of  a  special  devo- 
tion to  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  to  give  it  form  in  the  Confraternity 
of  the  Servants  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  I  am  convinced  that  the  time 
is   not  far  distant  when  the  devotion  to  the   Paraclete,   the    Spirit  of 


CATHOLIC  SOCIETIES.  199 

light  and  love,  will  be  the  predominant  devotion  of  the  Church. 
Happy  are  they  who  have  the  grace  of  tasting  and  appreciating  its 
first  fruits. 

Next  in  dignity  and  importance  to  the  associations  which  arc  the 
embodiment  of  popular  devotion,  come  those  Avhose  object  is  to 
co-operate  with  the  clergy  in  spreading  throughout  the  world  the 
Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  in  establishing,  maintaining  and  per- 
fecting every  appliance  of  the  kingdom  of  God  for  the  enlighten- 
ment and  salvation  of  men.  Throughout  the  whole  Body  of  Christ, 
we  behold  the  same  zeal  which  sends  the  missionaries  to  the  ends 
of  the  earth,  banding  together  the  multitudes  of  the  faithful  in 
associations  for  supplying  the  means  which  will  carry  the  mission- 
aries to  their  destination,  support  them  in  their  arduous  labors, 
and  erect  the  churches  and  schools  Avhich  their  missions  need. 
8uch  are  the  world-wide  associations  of  the  Propagation  of  the 
Faith  and  the  Holy  Childhood ;  such  the  kindred  associations  for 
supporting  the  missions  among  the  Indians  and  the  colored  people 
of  our  country;  such  the  mission  unions  to  aid  poor  dioceses  in 
building  up  the  Church  within  their  borders ;  such  the  admirable 
societies  for  supplying  poor  churches  with  decent  vestments  and  proper 
ornaments  for  the  altar  and  the  tabernacle ;  such  the  associations 
for  supporting  Catholic  education,  like  the  noble  Young  Catholics' 
Friend  Society,  which  is  such  an  honor  to  this  archdiocese ;  such 
the  various  Catholic  publication  societies  for  supporting  the  Catholic 
press  and  for  the  diffusion  of  Catholic  books  and  periodicals ;  such 
too,  the  Catholic  academies,  like  the  Academy  of  St.  Thomas  and 
the  Academy  of  History,  established  in  Rome  by  Leo  XIII,  the 
Catholic  academy  founded  in  London  by  Cardinal  Wiseman,  and 
other  similar  associations,  in  which  bodies  of  leai-ned  men  come 
together  to  study  science,  philosophy  and  history  in  the  glare  of 
light  which  modern  thought  and  research  have  thrown  upon  them, 
and  to  demonstrate  the  glorious  accord  between  reason  and  revela- 
tion, between  science  and  religion,  between  the  Church  and  civiliza- 
tion; such,  in  fine,  the  great  national  and  international  combinations 
which  have  taken  shape  in  the  Catholic  congresses  of  Europe,  and 
which  in  faithful  Germany  have  banded  together  the  Catholics  of 
the  country  as  a  rampart  of  adamant  for  the  protection  of  the 
inalienable  rights  of  conscience  against  injustice  and  tyranny.  In 
all   these   various   ways   the   members   of    the    Body  of  Christ   labor 


200  SFEMOJ}fS  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

directly  for  the  glory  of  God,  for  the  salvation  of  souls,  for  the 
building  up  of  the  Church  of  Christ;  and  whoever  loves  God 
ought  to  be  anxious  to  have  a  hand  in  the  -work.  Nor  is  it  a 
matter  of  supererogation,  of  merely  superfluous  zeal,  that  God's 
creatures  should  thus  seek  to  take  a  part  in  God's  work.  On  the 
contrary,  we  have  seen  that  this  exercise  of  human  activity,  this 
co-operation  of  the  creatures  in  the  designs  of  the  Creator,  is  an 
integral  part  in  the  plan  of  divine  Providence ;  and  whoever  shirks 
his  part  in  the  toil  wrongs  both  God  and  his  fellow-creatures,  and 
becomes  a  rusty,  broken  wheel  in  the  great  machine  of  humanity — 
a  hindrance  rather  than  a  help.  "  He  that  is  not  with  Me,  is 
against  Me,"  says  our  Lord,  "  and  he  that  gathereth  not  Avitli  Me, 
scattereth."  If  we  have  time  and  strength,  we  owe  them  to  His 
work ;  and  if  Ave  have  not  time  or  strength,  we  must  help  with 
our  pecuniary  means ;  and  if  we  have  neither  time  nor  strength, 
nor  money,  then  we  must  do  our  best  with  our  prayers,  our 
sympathy,  our  encouragement,  our  moral  assistance.  No  one  can 
be  selfish,  or  indifferent,  or  negligent,  and  stand  excused  before  the 
divine  Master.  There  must  be  no  dead,  inert  members  in  the 
Body  of  Christ. 

Closely  allied  to  these  associations  for  the  spread  and  mainte- 
nance of  the  work  of  Christ,  are  those  whose  aim  is  the  sup- 
l^ression  of  immoral  influences  which  resist  the  cause  of  Christ. 
The  ministry  of  the  Church  strive  for  the  suppression  of  immo- 
rality by  their  labors  in  the  pulpit,  in  the  confessional,  in  their 
daily  contact  with  the  people ;  but  all  the  faithful  must  co-operate 
with  them.  As  all  the  nerves  and  forces  of  the  human  system  co- 
operate for  the  expulsion  of  noxious  humors,  so  must  all  the 
members  of  the  Body  of  Christ  work  together  for  the  expulsion 
of  evil.  "  If  one  member  suffer  anytliing,"  says  St.  Paul,  "  all 
the  members  suffer  with  it."  As  our  divine  Lord  deigned  to  suf- 
fer in  His  mortal  body  weariness,  hunger,  pain  and  outrage,  while 
His  Divinity  was  almighty,  glorious  and  impas^sible,  so  is  it  the 
providence  of  God  that  His  mystical  body  should  be  afflicted  with 
the  ailments  of  poor  sinful  human  nature,  even  while  its  Head 
is  Christ  the  Son  of  God,  and  its  vivifying  Spirit  God  the  Holy 
Ghost.  But  ah !  what  a  grief  to  the  heart  of  our  Lord  are  the 
sinfulness  and  defilements  of  His  unworthy  members !  And,  as 
love   prompted    Veronica    to    burst   through    the    mocking    crowd    and 


CATHOLIC  SOCIETIES.  201 

wipe  away  the  defilements  which  marred  the  beauty  of  His  sacred 
tiice,  and  Magdalen  to  kiss  and  soothe  His  pierced  feet,  so  does 
the  love  of  Christ  prompt  generous  hearts  to  labor  for  the  re- 
moval from  His  mystical  body  of  the  disfigurements  that  are 
unworthy    of  it. 

Now  the  evils  which  beset  the  poor  frail  members  of  the  Body 
of  Christ  are  of  two  classes.  Some  of  them  shun  the  light,  and 
do  their  Avretched  work  in  the' hidden  secrecy  of  individual  souls; 
and  the  Spirit  of  Christ  combats  these  hiddenly,  by  the  silent 
influences  brought  to  bear  on  the  individual  conscience  in  the  con- 
fessional, or  in  the  sanctuary  of  a  good  home,  or  by  friendly 
fraternal  correction.  Others,  on  the  contrary,  are  public  and  ag- 
gressive, and  strive  openly  to  build  up  the  kingdom  of  the  Evil 
One  on  earth ;  and  these  have  to  be  resisted  openly,  publicly,  by 
concerted  action.  It  is  needless  for  me  to  inform  any  one  who 
knows  the  state  of  society  that  chief  among  these  open,  public 
and  aggressive  immoral  influences,  is  the  vice  of  intemperance.  It 
fights  against  God  in  the  noonday ;  it  plants  its  batteries  of  de- 
struction along  all  our  thoroughfares ;  it  seizes  on  innumerable 
victims  in  every  class  of  society,  and  drags  them  down  to  tem- 
poral and  eternal  ruin ;  it  wrecks  lives,  blasts  homes,  undermines 
society,  and  brings  disgrace  on  the  Church  of  God ;  it  bands  its 
leaders  and  their  minions  into  a  mighty  host  to  control  politics 
and    to    sway    legislation. 

Therefore  does  tlie  Spirit  of  God  rouse  thousands  upon  thousands 
of  earnest  souls  to  a  holy  indignation  against  this  monstrous  evil,  and 
band  them  together  in  societies  to  oppose  it,  to  check  its  ravages, 
and,  if  possible,  to  banish  it,  if  not  from  the  whole  social  body,  at 
least  from  -the  Church,  the  Body  of  Christ.  This  is  the  providen- 
tial origin  of  our  Catholic  temperance  societies ;  this  their  spirit 
and  their  aim.  Who  that  has  in  his  heart  any  love  for  humanity, 
any  love  for  Christ,  but  must  sympathize  lieartily  and  practically 
with  their  endeavor?  Who  that  loves  his  brethren  but  must  long- 
to  save  them  from  this  curse?  Who  that  loves  Christ  but  must 
yearn  to  wipe  this  foul  stain  from  His  mystical  body,  as  Veronica 
wiped  the  defilements  from  His  blessed  face  ?  Into  our  temperance 
societies,  therefore,  flock  those  who  have  felt  the  curse  and  flung 
it  olf,  and  those  who  have  experienced  the  danger  and  escaped 
it;    but  their   main    strength    lies    in   the    great   number  of  good  and 


"202  SEB3I0NS  OF  TUB  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

zealous  men  who  have  never  felt  the  pollution  of  the  monster's  touch, 
but  who  hate  it  and  combat  it,  because  they  love  Christ  and  His 
Church,  and  the  souls  He  died  to  save.  They  know  from  the 
;sad  experience  which  is  to  be  found  too  abundantly  around  us, 
that  for  those  who  once  have  been  poisoned  by  the  tempter's  fang 
total  abstinence  is  their  only  safety.  Therefore,  these  lovers  of 
iheir  brethren  not  only  go  among  the  fallen  and  the  tempted  ones 
to  reason  with  them,  but  add  to  their  words  the  stronger  influ- 
ence of  example,  and  cheerfully  take  upon  themselves  the  self- 
denial  of  total  abstinence,  that  they  may  the  better  save  the  souls 
for  whom  Christ  denied  Himself  all  things.  They  who  love  sinful 
indulgence,  or  they  who  derive  profit  from  it,  may  scoiF  and  sneer  ; 
honest  but  mistaken  men  may  hesitate  and  doubt ;  but  the  work 
is  prompted  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  and  it  must  go  on.  So  long 
as  the  Church  of  Christ  mourns  over  the  scandalous  and  devastat- 
ing work  of  intemperance,  so  long  must  her  loving  and  earnest 
and  self-sacrificing  children  labor  for  the  abatement  of  the  evil  and, 
if  possible,  for  its  cure.  Brethren,  look  at  this  matter  in  its  true 
light,  and  if,  as  I  am  confident,  you  are  worthy  to  be  members 
of  the  Body  of  Christ,  then  will  you  be  sure  to  give  to  this 
great  moral  movement  your  practical  co-operation,  or,  at  least,  your 
heartfelt  sympathy  and  encouragement.  God  bless  our  Catholic 
temperance  societies ;  God  bless  our  Catholic  Total  Abstinence 
Union ;  and  God  bless  the  good  and  zealous  men — bishops,  priests 
and  laymen — who  are  leading  and  directing  them.  Our  Holy 
Father,  the  Pope,  has  repeatedly  blessed  them ;  and  to  his  blessing 
may  that  of  every  bishop  and  priest  and  Catholic  in  the  land  be 
added.  They  are  doing  a  most  important  work,  yea,  considering 
our  circumstances,  a  most  essential  work  in  the  Church.  May 
their  success  be  glorious,  and  their  reward  great  and  everlasting. 
Thus  is  the  Church,  like  her  divine  Head,  ever  intent  on 
"  saving  her  people  from  their  sins."  But,  besides  saving  them 
by  delivering  them  from  sin,  she  longs  to  save  them  by  preserv- 
ing them  from  it.  Her  fondest  desire  is  to  take  her  members  Avhile 
they  are  sinless,  and  keep  them  sinless.  Hence,  with  true  maternal 
instinct  her  heart  goes  out  especially  towards  the  young,  and  her 
arms  encircle  them  with  especial  care.  She  strains  every  nerve  to 
provide  for  them  the  most  important  of  all  the  blessings  of  their 
life — a   good    Christian    education.     But  education  is    not  confined  to 


CATHOLIC  SOCIETIES.  203 

school  and  school-days.  School-days  are  the  spring-time,  the  seed- 
time of  education.  The  growth  and  the  harvest  must  develop 
under  the  scorching  summer  sun  of  subsequent  life  in  the  world. 
The  time  after  school  days  is  the  critical  j)eriod  of  life,  when  it 
is  decided  whether  the  carefully-planted  seed  shall  be  cultivated 
and  brought  to  fruit,  or  allowed  to  wither  away  and  rot.  Besides, 
the  young  are  naturally  gregarious.  The  old  may  love  solitude, 
•but  the  young  crave  companionship ;  and  on  the  nature  of  their 
companionship  will  largely  depend  the  fortune  of  their  lives. 
Therefore  does  the  life-force  of  the  Body  of  Christ  naturally  put 
itself  forth  in  the  formation  of  associations  for  the  guidance  and 
improvement  of  youth,  and  especially  of  young  men,  with  whom 
i;he  danger  and  the  need  are  greatest.  From  the  day  they  leave 
school  they  are  prone  to  give  up  all  care  for  their  intellectual 
improvement;  therefore  they  are  to  be  surrounded  with  incentives 
to  the  acquisition  of  sound  knowledge  and  of  a  taste  for  good 
reading.  They  are  beset  with  allurements  to  dangerous  amusements 
.and  ruinous  companionships;  therefore  are  they  to  be  supplied  with 
means  of  innocent  recreation  with  good  companions  of  their  own 
faith.  They  are  apt  to  fall  into  neglect  of  their  religious  duties; 
hence  the  need  of  inducements  to  their  approaching  the  Sacra- 
ments   regularly. 

These  are  the  objects  aimed  at  in  our  Catholic  young  men's 
associations — whether  sodalities,  lyceums  or  institutes.  To  any  one 
who  appreciates  the  dangers  to  which  our  young  men  are  exposed, 
210  arguments  can  be  needed  to  demonstrate  the  importance  of  pro- 
viding them  with  these  safeguards.  They  arc  the  natural  outgrowth 
of  the  Church's  maternal  solicitude  and  practical  good  sense. 
Pastors,  above  all,  who  are  so  well  acquainted  with  the  propensi- 
ties and  perils  of  young  men,  must  recognize  the  absolute  necessity 
'of  making  special  provision  for  their  welfare ;  and  if  they  desire,  as 
of  course  they  must  desire,  to  mould  into  true  Christian  men  the 
youth  on  whom  the  future  hopes  of  their  congregations  depend,  they 
cannot  fail  to  see  that  the  assiduous  paternal  direction  of  young 
men's  societies  must  form  an  integral  and  most  important  part  in 
their  pastoral  solicitude.  This  has  been  again  and  again  urged  on 
tlie  attention  of  the  pastors  of  the  Church  by  our  Holy  Father 
Leo  XIII.  And  our  young  men  must  remember  that  on  their 
iseeking,    and    cheerfully    accepting,    and    dutifully    aleiding     by    this 


204  SBBJIOXS  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

guidance,  the  usefulness  and  success  of  their  societies  must  almost 
entirely  depend.  If  united  with  the  clergy,  and  heartily  in  sym- 
pathy with  their  guidance,  then  their  society  draws  its  life  directly 
from  the  channels  of  the  Church's  life,  and  will  be  a  powerful 
means  for  making  them  intelligent,  energetic  and  thoroughly  prac- 
tical   Catholic    men. 

But  should  a  mistaken  spirit  of  false  independence  creep  in  and 
alienate  them  from  the  clergy ;  should  they  begin  to  prefer  their 
own  way  of  thinking  and  acting  rather  than  the  Church's  way; 
should  they  begin  to  take  the  attitude  of  "we  are  a  society  of 
Catholics,  not  a  Catholic  society;"  then  they  may  rest  assured 
that  their  society  will  not  only  be  no  comfort  to  their  pastor,  and 
no  blessing  to  the  parish,  but  it  will  be  an  injury  rather  than  a 
benefit  to  themselves.  It  will  breed  a  set  of  half-hearted  Catholics,, 
in  little  or  no  sympathy  with  their  Mother,  the  Church,  and  they 
will  be  only  a  drag  on  the  wheels  of  her  progress,  a  hindrance 
to  the  extension  of  the  kingdom  of  Christ.  There  is  great  truth 
in  the  old  saying :  "  Corruptio  optimi  2)(^ssima " — that  is,  "  the  very 
best,  when  corrupted,  becomes  the  very  worst ; "  and  this  is  pre- 
eminently true  of  societies.  It  behooves  both  our  young  men  and 
their  pastors  to  see,  therefore,  that  they  avoid  the  two  evils  of 
neglecting  to  use  so  powerful  a  means  of  vigorous  Catholic  life  as 
the  young  men's  societies  are,  and  of  j^ermitting  the  societies  to 
languish  and  go  to  ruin  for  want  of  proper  direction.  But  let 
the  priests  and  the  young  men  stand  together  and  work  together,, 
and  then  we  may  rest  assured  that  we  are  forming  a  generation 
of  thorough  Christians,  of  loyal  Catholics,  of  devoted  soldiers  of 
the   Cross    of  Christ. 

Next  to  the  various  associations  for  the  spread  and  preservation 
of  Catholic  faith  and  virtue,  we  may  well  place  those  whose  aim 
is  the  exercise  of  Catholic  charity.  How  tender  was  the  heart  of 
Jesus !  He  never  saw  a  tear  but  He  longed  to  wipe  it  away ; 
He  never  met  a  bruised  heart  but  He  longed  to  heal  and  soothe 
it.  These  charitable  societies  are  channels  through  which  the  ten- 
derness of  the  heart  of  Jesus  is  poured  out  upon  the  suffering 
and  the  sorrowful.  Among  them  all  wc  may  mention  as  worthy 
of  special  honor  the  St.  Vincent  de  Paul  Society,  whose  conferences 
are  fountains  of  benediction  to  the  poor  in  nearly  every  country  of 
the   world.     They   prove    themselves    worthy    to    bear    the    name    of 


CATHOLIC  SOCIETIES.  205 

the  Apostle  of  charity  under  whose  patronage  they  labor.  Gladly 
"svould  I,  if  time  permitted,  speak  of  the  thousand  contrivances 
through  which  the  Church  exercises  that  loving  care  for  the  poor, 
which  is  one  of  the  cliief  characteristics  of  Christian  civilization. 
Gladly  would  I  do  honor  to  the  myriads  of  noble  hearts  who 
■devote  their  hours  of  leisure,  and  many  their  whole  lives,  to  the 
fiweet  task  of  binding  up  the  wounds  of  suffering  humanity. 
•Gladly  woald  I  enumerate  the  almost  countless  associations  who 
take  charge  of  destitute  little  children  or  of  helpless  old  age ;  of 
the  poor  in  their  homes  and  the  poor  who  are  homeless ;  of  the 
•working  woman's  little  ones  while  she  is  at  her  work,  and  of 
poor  servants  who  can  find  no  work ;  of  the  lonely  girl  who  is 
tottering  amid  dangers,  or  the  poor  neglected  bootblack  or  newsboy; 
•of  the  needy  sick  and  the  friendless  dead.  Their  name  is  legion, 
;and  not  one  is  missing  from  the  Book  of  Life.  We  bless  and 
praise  them  now,  and  one  day  they  will  hear  the  Master  say: 
•^'As  often  as  ye  did  it  to  these  My  least  ones,  ye  have  done  it 
unto  Me."  Oh !  let  them  remember  that  it  is  upon  Him  they 
bestow  their  charity,  and  let  them  do  it  with  all  the  tenderness 
and  thoughtful  considcratencss  which  He  deserves.  Let  them  give 
not  merely  food  and  clothing  to  the  body,  but  sympathy  and  affec- 
tion to  the  suffering  heart.  Let  them  pray  as  they  approach  the 
poor  man's  door,  that  they  may  see  Jesus  there,  and  deal  with 
Him  reverently  and  lovingly;  and,  if  they  find  some  whom  mis- 
fortune has  discouraged,  and  hardship  has  hardened,  and  whom 
temptation  has  led  astray  from  God,  let  them  here  see  their  highest 
and  best  work,  and  cease  not  till  the  sweet  influences  of  genuine 
■charity  have  melted  the  hardness  and  brought  the  wanderer  back 
to  the  Good  Shepherd.  Let  them,  after  the  example  of  St.  Vincent 
iind  of  our  divine  Lord,  aim  at  making  the  poor  really  better  and 
happier,  that  they  may  be  worthy  of  the  glorious  position  which 
they  hold  as  the  dispensers  of  the  tender  charity  of  Christ  and  of 
His   Church. 

There  is  another  class  of  societies  which,  though  they  may  not 
l)e  considered  to  flow  directly  from  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  so  as  to 
be  functions  of  His  mystical  Body,  are  in  perfect  harmony  with 
it  and  deserving  of  our  commendation.  These  are  the  societies  which 
are  formed  for  the  promotion  of  social  union  among  Catholics,  or 
to    secure    their    pecuniary    assistance    to    one    another    in    times    of 


206  SEEMONS  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

sickness  and  death.  These  objects  are  the  natural  dictates  of  prac- 
tical good  sense ;  and  there  is  always  sure  to  be  found  a  close 
relationship  between  practical  good  sense  and  the  religion  of  Christ. 
It  is  unquestionably  the  will  of  God  that  we  should  associate  fra- 
ternally with  one  another,  and  aid  one  another  in  times  of  need ; 
and  as  the  Church  loves  to  see  her  people  industrious  and  thrifty, 
so  does  she  love  to  see  them  band  together  for  the  better  securing 
of  even  their  temporal  comfort  and  prosperity. 

But  these  societies  have  another  great  advantage.  They  are  a 
strong  safeguard  against  the  allurements  of  societies  which  conceal 
evil  or  dangerous  designs  under  the  attractive  cloak  of  benevolence 
and  mutual  assistance.  A  great  writer  has  well  said  that  the 
devil  is  the  ape  of  Almighty  God,  always  counterfeiting  the  ways 
of  divine  Providence,  in  order  to  lure  men  astray  by  the  glitter 
of  his  false  coin.  AVe  all  know  how  cunningly  and  how  success-* 
fully  lie  is  now  using  for  that  purpose  the  specious  but  delusive 
and  pernicious  brotherhood  of  secret  societies.  It  is  not  my  province 
to  enter  into  any  detailed  examination  of  their  nature.  The  Vicar 
of  Christ  has  lately  given  to  the  world  a  summing  up  of  the 
Church's  long  experience  in  dealing  with  them.  He  has  shown  that 
in  many  countries  they  stand  arrayed  in  open  hostility  to  the  religion 
and  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  that  elsewhere  they  contain 
the  same  evil  tendencies,  at  least  in  germ.  We  have  all  heard 
expressions  like  these :  "  I  Avill  be  a  good  enough  man  if  I  am 
as  good  as  my  society  would  make  mo,"  "  If  I  can  live  up  to 
the  spirit  of  my  society,  that  will  be  religion  enough  for  me," 
and  other  declarations  of  a  similar  sort.  Now,  no  matter  how 
good  a  thing  may  be  in  itself,  if  it  put  itself  forward  as  a  sub- 
stitute for  the  religion  and  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  it  becomes  a 
counterfeit,  a  delusion  and  a  snare.  Natural  religion  or  natural 
benevolence  is  good,  as  far  as  it  goes,  as  a  vestibule  to  super- 
natural religion  and  Christian  charity ;  but  should  it  wish  to 
make  itself  the  religion  of  the  world,  and  thus  virtually  supplant 
Christ  our  Lord,  then  it  is  "  Satan  clothed  as  an  angel  of  light." 
The  Church  is  convinced,  from  her  long  and  world-wide  experi- 
ence, that  such  is  the  tendency  and  the  aim  of  the  secret  societies,, 
whose  ramifications  now  cover  the  earth.  Therefore  she  warns  her 
children  against  them,  and  forbids  membership  in  them  under  pen- 
alty of    exclusion    from    her    communion    and    Sacraments.     And    she 


CATHOLIC  SOCIETIES.  20T 

rejoices  at  the  multiplication  of  thoroughly  Catholic  benevolent  and 
beneficial  associations,  in  which  the  natural  virtues  are  brought 
into  their  proper  relation  with  supernatural  religion,  and  in  which 
Catholics  are  guarded  against  the  inducements  held  out  by  bad 
or   dangerous    societies. 

And  now,  beloved  brethren,  let  us  glance  back  and  conclude. 
We  have  studied,  although  very  briefly  and  imperfectly,  the  provi- 
dential work  of  the  laity  in  the  Church  of  God.  We  have  glanced 
at  the  various  associations  in  which  they  are  banded  together  by 
the  instincts  of  nature  and  the  guidance  of  grace  for  holy  and 
admirable  purposes — for  increasing  popular  piety,  for  extending  and 
establishing  the  kingdom  of  Christ,  for  resisting  the  destructive 
influence  of  an  aggressive  and  scandalous  vice,  for  moulding  our 
youth  into  sterling  Christian  men,  for  bringing  comfort  and  relief 
to  the  suffering  poor,  for  promoting  fraternal  union  and  co-operation 
among  Catholics,  and  thus  rendering  harmless  the  attractions  of 
dangerous  societies.  We  have  seen  how  naturally  their  activity  in 
all  these  good  works  flows  from  their  being  members  of  the  Body 
of  Christ,  living  by  its  life  and  moved  by  its  action.  We  have 
seen  how,  by  zealous  activity  in  the  prosecution  of  these  noble 
ends,  they  are  made  worthy  of  our  divine  Head,  and  are  perfected 
in  the  image  and  likeness  of  our  heavenly  Father,  the  ever  activo 
and  infinitely  loving  God.  And  we  have  seen  how  naturally  and 
how  profitably  individual  zeal  is  combined  and  shaped  for  concerted 
action  by  Catholic  associations. 

In  the  light  of  these  facts,  no  one  surely  can  question  whether 
Catholic  societies  are  advisable  or  not.  As  well  might  one  ques- 
tion whether  the  members  of  the  Body  of  Christ  should  act,  and 
should  act  harmoniously  and  efficiently.  If,  in  any  particular 
instance.  Catholic  societies  are  found  not  to  work  satisfactorily,  it 
must  be  that  they  are  not  acting  in  harmony  with  the  spirit  of  the 
Church,  because  they  are  not  acting  in  union  with  her.  They  must 
have  in  some  manner  drifted  away  from  the  paternal  direction  of 
the  clergy ;  they  have  got  outside  of  the  Church's  guidance ;  they 
are  not  moved  by  her  life.  It  is  a  great  misfortune  when  zeal 
and  energy  are  tlms  wanted  and  perhaps  misused  for  want  of  being 
rightly  directed ;  and  it  behooves  both  societies  and  pastors  to  see 
to  it  that  no  such  drifting  loose,  no  such  waste  or  misdirection 
of    energy   be   allowed.      Catholic   activity    is    not    so    abundant    that 


208  SEBMONS  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL, 

Ave  can  aiford  to  let  any  of  it  go  to  loss.  Let  priests  and  people, 
therefore,  be  careful  to  keep  united,  that  all  their  action  may  be 
harmonious    and    useful,  as    becomes    the    Body    of   Christ. 

Kor  again  can  any  one,  with  all  these  facts  before  him,  ques- 
tion whether  it  is  advisable  or  not  for  every  individual  Catholic 
to  take  an  active  interest  in  the  work  of  Catholic  societies.  As 
well  ask  whether  it  is  allowable  to  a  Catholic  to  feel  indiiferent 
about  the  advance  of  religion,  the  spread  of  the  Church,  the  tem- 
poral and  eternal  welfare  of  his  brethren ;  or,  whether  he  might 
not  confine  his  interest  in  them  to  a  mere  sentimental  sympathy, 
without  active  co-operation.  The  notion  carries  with  it  its  own 
condemnation,  and  is  repugnant  to  the  instincts  of  every  truly 
Catholic  heart.  There  must  be  no  cold,  inert,  sluggish  members 
in  the  Body  of  Christ.  Above  all,  there  must  be  no  carping, 
sneering  members,  who  try  to  palliate  their  own  inaction  by 
decrying  the  activity  of  others.  If  the  spirit  of  God  is  in  us,  let 
us  show  it  by  the  untiringness  of  our  Catholic  action,  and  let  our 
hearts,  like  that  of  our  dear  Lord,  be  eaten  up  with  zeal  for  tlie 
honor  and  beauty  of  the  Church  of  God.  Let  time,  and  strength, 
and  money,  and  loving  encouragement  be  all  employed  assiduously 
and  to  the  utmost,  in  pushing  on  the  Mork  of  God  and  in 
strengthening  every  organization  that  is  engaged  in  it.  Let  the 
motto  of  every  Catholic  society  and  of  every  individual  member 
of  the  Church  be  that  of  tlie  illustrious  founder  of  the  Society 
of  Jesus :  "  Omnia  ad  majorcni  Del  gloriam — All  for  the  greater 
glory   of   God." 


%^t  4^^\m^  mti  ^tmu, 


SERMOI  OF  RiaHT  REY.  THOMAS  1.  BROKER,  D.D., 

BISHOP   OF   WILMIKGTOH,    DEL. 


•'  The    house  of    God,  which    is  the  Church  of    the  living  God,   the  pillar    and 
ground  of  truth." — St.   PauVs  First  Epistle  to   Timothy,  c.  Hi,  v.  15. 

WHETHER  we  consider  the  actual  existence  of  the  Catholic  Church 
presenting  herself  before  the  world,  and  claiming  to  be  the 
mother  Church  of  Christianity,  or  examine  her  history  in  the  records 
of  Holy  Scripture  and  the  chronicle  of  every  age,  one  fact  must 
necessarily  challenge  our  admiration — namely,  she  is  the  only  constant 
•quantity  in  the  midst  of  evanescent  variables.  This  peculiarity,  cer- 
tainly not  communicated  to  any  other  moral  organization,  has  caused 
thinking  minds,  accustomed  to  and  fond  of  change,  to  give  an  almost 
scientific  classification  to  the  Catholic  Church  as  something  apart,  and 
they  deem  her  at  least  a  wonderful  fossil,  the  precise  nature  of 
which,  perhaps,  even  as  a  conservative  power,  they  can  hardly 
imagine.  It  is  our  duty  to  point  out  as  concisely  as  we  can  what 
are  some  of  the  claims  and  essential  characteristics  of  the  Church, 
of  which  "the  Maker  and  Founder  is  God,"  for  it  is  of  her  that 
our  Lord  and  Redeemer  speaks  when  He  says  emphatically,  "I  will 
build  My  Church,"  (Matt.,  xvi,  18,)  and  of  her  St.  Paul  uses  the 
remarkable  words  of  the  text,  describing  to  his  beloved  disciple  in 
the  faith  how  lie  was  to  conduct  himself  as  a  bishop  in  the  "House 
of  God,  which  is  the  Church  of  the  living  God,  the  pillar  and 
ground    of  truth."      (I.   Timothy,  iii,   15.) 

By  the  Church  in  the  Old  Law  was  clearly  meant  that  society 
which  God  had  chosen  and  called  forth  from  among  all  other 
nations    to    be    the    recipient    of    His   gracious    promises,  and    to   be 

14  (209) 


210  SEEirOJVS  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

the  chosen  people  when  the  Redeemer  should  come  as  the  Ruler 
of  the  whole  world.  That  society  had  a  divine  protection,  since 
through  it  the  glory  of  God  wixz  to  be  made  known  by  the  salva- 
tion of  men.  More  definite  words  cannot  be  found  than  those  used 
by  the  Apostle  of  the  nations,  St.  Paul,  when  writing  to  the  Romans 
in  the  9th  chapter,  4tli  and  5th  verses,  he  describes  the  claim  of 
the  Church  in  the  Old  Law :  "  To  whom  belongeth  the  adoption 
of  children,  and  the  glory,  and  the  covenant,  and  the  giving  of 
the  law,  and  the  service  of  God,  and  the  promises :  whose  also 
are  the  fathers,  and  of  whom  is  Christ,  according  to  the  fleshy 
who  is  over  all  things  God  blessed  forever.  Amen."  In  this 
Church,  which  was  indubitably  a  divine  institution.  Almighty  God 
set  forth  His  power  in  the  most  distinctively  evident  manner. 
Not  only  did  He  appear  to  the  patriarchs,  but  by  his  wonders  left 
that  permanent  impression  upon  the  Hebrews  which  to  this  day 
they  retain  as  the  best  corroborative  testimony  of  their  records. 
They  cannot  be  understood,  as  a  people,  without  a  knowledge  of 
their  religion.  Their  religion  is  maimed,  and  inexplicable  unless  by 
the  Church,  which  bore  the  promise  of  a  Redeemer.  This  promise 
was  fulfilled  in  Him  who  was  born  according  to  the  prophecy  of 
Isaias.  All,  therefore,  which  had  preceded  the  coming  of  Christ 
was  simply  the  promise ;  here  is  the  fulfillment,  for  He  came  not 
to  destroy,  but  to  fulfill.  (St.  Matt.,  v,  17.)  To  one  of  His 
disciples  He  makes  ampler  declarations,  almost  appalling  in  their 
wondrous  extent.  He  speaks  of  that  one  chosen  to  be  the  head 
over  his  brethren,  that  he  should  be  a  rock  on  which  Christ  would 
build  His  Church  and  the  gates  of  hell  should  not  prevail  against 
it ;  that  to  him  should  be  given  the  keys  of  heaven,  and  that 
his  loosing  and  binding  on  earth  should  be  ratified  in  heaven. 
(St.  Matt.,  xvi,  19.)  And  to  the  same  person,  carefully  mentioned 
by  name  and  surname,  the  Lord,  risen  from  the  dead,  gives  triple 
faculties  beyond  his  brethren ;  after  having  exacted  from  him  a 
triple  attestation  of  fealty,  to  feed  His  lambs,  feed  His  sheep,  to 
feed  His  whole  flock,  (St.  John,  xxi,  15,  16,  17,)  in  order  that  it 
might  be  a  fold  in  unity,  indivisible.  Christ  was  therefore,  when 
on  earth,  the  whole  teaching  Church.  He  possessed  all  truth,  com- 
plete authority,  and  permanently  infallible  magistracy.  He  promised 
to  give  all  that  He  possessed  to  His  Church,  that  which  He  had 
as  the  Redeemer  and  the  Teacher  of  mankind.  He  promised  this 
to    His   society,  which    is    the    Church. 


THE  CHURCH  AND  SCIENCE.  211 

But  this  teaching  was  for  the  benefit  of  men  to  the  end  of 
time.  The  permanency  of  Christ's  teaching  was  to  be  provided  by 
Himself.  He  would  send  the  Holy  Ghost  to  lead  His  Church 
into  all  trutli.  (St.  John,  xiv,  26)  '^  But  the  Paraclete,  the  Holy 
Ghost,  Avhom  the  Father  will  send  in  My  name,  He  will  teach 
you  all  things,  and  bring  all  things  to  your  mind,  whatsoever  I 
shall  have  said  to  you."  And,  finally,  as  the  last  blessing  He 
says,  "  Go  ye,  therefore,  and  teach  all  nations,  baptizing  them  in 
the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost; 
teaching  them  to  observe  all  things  whatsoever  I  have  commanded 
you,  and  behold  I  am  with  you  all  days,  even  to  the  consum- 
mation of  the  woild."  (Matt.,  xxviii,  19-20.)  This,  then,  is  the 
theory ;  this,  also,  is  the  practice  of  the  Church  of  God,  which 
is  the  House  of  the  living  God,  the  pillar  and  ground  of  truth. 
She  claims  to  be,  and  she  is,  the  sole  possessor  of  all  the  rich 
heritage  of  authority  from  her  divine  Founder,  and,  like  all  absolute 
truth,  she  is  intolerant  of  rivals.  She  would  be  untrue  to  her 
divine  Founder  were  she  to  abate  one  jot  or  one  tittle  of  that 
deposit  which  belongs   to  her  as  the    "  pillar  and  ground   of  truth." 

Nor  is  it  possible  to  have  the  full  consciousness  of  Catholic 
truth  until  we  have  entirely  grasped  the  idea  of  authority  with 
which  the  Church  teaches.  It  is  exactly  the  same  teaching  authority 
as  is  that  of  Christ.  It  was  especially  in  this  that  the  teaching 
of  Christ  differed  from  that  of  the  doctors  of  the  law,  since  it 
is  most  distinctly  asserted  of  Him  that  "He  taught  with  authority, 
and  not  as  the  scribes."  (St.  Mark,  i,  22.)  When,  therefore,  it  is 
thoroughly  understood  by  thinking  men  the  Church  Catholic  is 
simply,  truly  and  really  Christ  continuing  his  mission,  living  in 
the  world,  according  to  His  gracious  promises,  "  even  to  the  con- 
summation of  ages,"  (St.  Matt.,  xxviii,  20,)  and  teacliing  all  men 
"  who  wish  to  come  to  a  knowledge  of  the  truth "  the  entire 
system  of  revelation,  they  feel  the  vigor  of  St.  Paul's  admirably 
graphic  description  of  that  perennial  society,  concerning  wdiich  he 
says  that  she  is  "the  House  of  God,  the  pillar  and  ground  of 
the  truth." 

Thus  we  have  by  anticipation  a  universal  solvent  of  all  difficul- 
ties, however  plausible  they  may  be  presented  against  the  Church; 
for  she  is  made  out  to  be  the  very  voice  of  the  living  Saviour, 
guiding  our  footsteps  in  all  that  belongs  to  the  supernatural  life. 
We    have     an     impregnable     position,    since    the    promise   is     divine, 


212  SERMONS  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

that  the  gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail  against  that  house  which  is 
built  upon  a  rock.  It  was  chiefly  for  the  higher  manifestation  of 
His  Godhead  that  He  performed  miracles,  since  these  were,  in  their 
nature,  transient ;  but  His  teachings  were  enduring.  The  truths 
which  He  revealed  were  such  as  reason  could  not  have  known,  and 
they  belonged  to  a  sphere  as  much  beyond  mere  worldly  interests 
and  favor  as  the  soul  is  above  the  body.  It  would,  therefore, 
be  insulting  to  right  reason  to  suppose  a  conflict  possible,  since 
parallel  lines  cannot  meet.  It  is  only  science  falsely  so  called 
which  by  the  malice  of  men  is  perverted  to  seem  antagonistic  to 
the  Church.  Systems  from  this  source  have  often  presented  a 
bold  front.  Chiefly  remarkable  for  their  newness  of  expression, 
they  have  had  their  little  day,  and  the  unchangeable  Church  saw 
them    born,  and    calmly  watched    their    funeral. 

On  the  other  hand,  while  the  Church  logically  insists  on  the 
great  truth,  "  what  does  it  profit  a  man  to  gain  the  whole  world 
and  lose  his  soul,"  (St.  Matt.,  xvi,  26),  yet  she  can  appeal  with 
equal  truthfulness  to  the  facts  of  history  concerning  her  develop- 
ments of  science  and  learning.  She  has,  like  a  vestal  virgin,  fed 
the  earthly  flock  in  arts  and  sciences  with  celestial  nutriment,  and 
can  count  among  her  faithful  children  the  best  intellects  and  first 
discoverers  in  every  branch  of  knowledge.  Are  examples  of  phi- 
losophy required  ?  Who  can  compare  with  St.  Thomas,  the  Angel 
of  the  Schools  ?  Do  we  desire  to  take  up  an  indefinite  amount  of 
time  recounting  the  Fathers  and  doctors  of  the  Church?  In  archi- 
tecture, we  point  to  those  glorious  cathedrals,  which,  like  perma- 
nent prayers,  proclaim  in  stone  the  glory  of  that  sublime  religion 
which  produced  them  and  gave  them  life  and  voice.  In  painting, 
the  theme  was  furnished  by  her  history,  and  the  execution  faith- 
fully performed  through  the  inspiration  of  her  genius,  while  life 
was  breathed  into  the  marble  by  those  who,  at  her  bidding,  caused 
the  virtues  of  the  saints  to  take  enduring  form  in  the  stead  of 
the  apotheosis  of  vices,  or  earthly  praise  of  mere  human  prowess. 
In  music,  who  can  compare  with  those  transcendent  intellects  born 
of  the  Catholic  Church,  who  blended  the  harmonies  of  the  angels 
with  the  human  voice  in  honor  of  Him  "whose  kingdom  shall 
have  no  end?"  (St.  Luke,  1.)  Not  an  art  exists  but  she  has 
chained  in  loving  obedience  to  her  triumphal  chariot,  not  a  science 
can   exist   but   is   at   once    made   subservient   to    her    sway. 


THE  CnURCU  AND  SCIENCE.  213 

It  is  true,  she  Aveighs  well  her  conclusions,  and  being  eternal, 
she  can  afford  to  wait  until  the  sober  thought  of  matured  judg- 
ment shall  have  corrected  hastily  drawn  inferences.  The  Sacred 
Scriptures,  for  instance,  under  her  protection — where  alone  they  can 
be  properly  understood — have  undergone  innumerable  attacks  on  the 
part  of  intellects  so  keen  and  indwelt  by  a  hatred  so  far  beyond 
expression  that  no  future  reinforcements  can  arise  to  equal  either 
their  ability  or  audacity,  when  battling  against  the  Word  of  God 
and  His  Church.  Yet,  the  Scriptures,  defended  by  the  invulnerable 
panoply  of  the  Church,  stand  forth  unchanged  and  unscathed,  and 
both  remain  sublimely  calm  and  beautiful  after  the  battles  of  cen- 
turies, as  the  rainbow  Avhich  smiles  upon  the  earth  after  the  tem- 
pest. It  is  right  and  logical  to  draw  an  inference  from  the  past, 
and  since  no  antagonism  has  hitherto  been  able  to  be  proved  be- 
tween divine  revelation  and  true  human  science,  we  may  unhesi- 
tatingly assert  that  no  contradiction  can  ever  be  conceived.  Their 
objects  or  aims  are  different,  but  by  no  means  contradictory;  they 
are  diverse,  yet  never  opposite.  Revelation  has  in  its  very  nature 
to  give  us  a  knowledge  of  the  invisible  world,  the  superior,  nay, 
even  the  immortal  part ;  science  must  treat  of  the  empirical,  the 
material,  the  transient.  The  former  is  fixed  truth,  which  depends  on 
the  veracity  of  God ;  the  latter  must  be  tried  or  experimented 
upon — is  subject  to  progress  or  even  neglect.  Experimental  evi- 
dence is  the  ultimate  barrier  beyond  Avhich  it  dares  not  go. 

Here  the  Church  steps  in,  and,  using  the  highest  formula  of 
science  as  her  lowest  stepping  stone,  claims  within  her  own  ambit 
the  power  and  potency  of  all  things.  She  gives  to  an  intelligent 
Cause  the  first  act  of  creation,  which  atheists  unintelligibly  ascribe  to 
senseless  matter,  which  they  should  logically  fall  down  and  worship 
as  the  author  of  their  highest  and  most  perfect  realizations.  We 
prefer  to  rise  from  effect  to  cause ;  from  the  visible  to  the  invisi- 
ble ;  from  thought  to  the  Author  of  mind ;  from  the  creature  en- 
dowed with  noble  intellect  to  the  Creator.  In  this  the  Church 
fears  no  examination ;  she  dreads  no  investigation.  Unthinking  and 
superficial  views  she  fears.  She  beseeches  men  to  lay  aside  the 
prejudices  by  which  they  have  been  enwrapped,  and  pleads  with  all 
to  consider  her  claims  as  the  constant  guide ;  her  Avorks  as  the 
fruits  of  her  teacliings ;  her  history  as  the  constant  quantity  which 
can  no  more  diminish  than  that  truth,  of  which  she  is  the  pillar 
and   foundation,  and  wliich   is   for   men  the   voice   of  the   living  God. 


^Ij^  ^^tln^Iidta  4  tli^  ^\\\mlh 


SERMOI  OF  RIGHT  REY.  JAMES  O'COfflOR,  D.D., 


YICAR    APOSTOLia  OF   NEBRASKA. 


Going,   therefore,   teacli  ye  all  nations. — 3Iatt.,  c.  xxviii,  v.  10. 

THE  subject  on  which  I  have  been  asked  to  address  you  this 
evening,  dear  brethren,  is  "  The  Catholicity  of  the  Church." 
Catholicity,  or  universality,  is  an  essential  attribute  of  the  Church 
of  Christ.  She  is  necessarily  Catholic,  and  she  alone  is  or  can 
be  such.  Her  mission,  the  object  for  which  she  was  established, 
is  Catholic,  and  she  must  needs  be  Catholic.  She  was  instituted 
to  lead  men  to  a  knowledge  of  the  true  God,  to  train  them  to 
the  practice  of  the  Christian  virtues,  and,  by  so  doing,  to  pre- 
pare them  for  eternal  happiness.  This  she  was  to  do,  not  by 
writing,  but  by  teaching  and  by  administering  to  every  individual 
visible  sacraments.  Faith  was  "  to  come  from  hearing."  No  one 
could  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven  except  by  baptism.  No 
one  could  have  life  in  him  who  did  not  "  cat  the  flesh  of  the 
Son    of   Man,    and    drink    His    blood." 

But  the  Church  could  not  do  this  sort  of  work,  could  not 
teach  and  administer  sacraments,  where  she  did  not  exist.  Hence 
our  Lord  commissioned  and  positively  commanded  His  Apostles 
to  put  themselves  in  a  position  to  perform  it  in  the  very  natural 
manner  in  which  He  had  prescribed  it  should  be  done.  "All 
power,"  He  said  to  them,  "  is  given  to  Mc  in  heaven  and  on 
cartli.  Going,  therefore,  teach  ye  all  nations,  baptizing  them  in  the 
name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 
Teaching  them  to  observe  all  things  whatsoever  I  have  commanded 
you.  And  behold  I  am  with  you  all  days  even  to  the  consumma- 
tion   of  the   world." 

(214) 


THE  CATHOLICITY  OF  THE  CHURCH.  215 

He  had  previously  restricted  their  teaching  to  the  Jewish  people. 
*'  Go  not,"  He  said,  "  into  the  Avay  of  the  Gentiles,  and  into  the 
city  of  the  Samaritans  enter  ye  not."  The  Law  was  for  the 
Jews.  "  In  Judea,"  said  the  Psalmist,  "  God  is  known."  This 
restriction  He  now  removes,  and  throws  open  the  whole  world  to 
their  preaching.  Now  the  kingdom  of  God  is  to  be  taken  from 
the  Jews,  "  and  given  to  a  nation  yielding  the  fruits  thereof." 
^'And  I  will  say  to  that  which  was  not  My  people,  thou  art  My 
people." 

The  diffusion  of  the  Church  over  the  world  was  to  take  place 
without  fail.  It  was  not  left  to  depend  on  the  unaided  efforts 
of  the  Apostles.  Our  Lord  Himself  guaranteed  its  success,  when 
He  said :  "  I  am  M'ith  you  all  days,  even  to  the  consummation  of 
the  world."  But  for  this  assurance  the  Apostles  would  have  shrank 
appalled  from  the  task  assigned  them.  When  the  Lord  commanded 
Moses  to  free  his  people  from  the  bondage  of  the  Pharoes,  the 
Patriarch  exclaimed  in  very  natural  surprise :  "  Who  am  I  that 
I  should  go  to  Pharoe,  and  bring  forth  the  people  of  Israel  out  of 
Egypt  ?"  But  when  he  heard  that  "  I  will  be  with  thee,"  and 
received  power  to  work  miracles  in  proof  of  his  mission,  he  hesi- 
tated no  longer,  well  knowing  that  what  M'as  impossible  to  him 
would,    with   the   divine   aid,   be   not   only   possible   but   easy. 

But  the  voice  of  the  Apostles,  or  their  teaching,  was  not  to 
reach  every  individual  beyond  the  confines  of  Judea.  Many  would 
be  found  unworthy  of  such  a  favor.  Their  culpable  idolatry  and 
infidelity,  their  violations  of  the  natural  law  written  on  their 
hearts,  the  shameful  vices  to  which  the  majority  of  them  were 
addicted,  would  keep  from  them  the  apostolic  message.  They  would, 
indeed,  always  have  sufficient  grace  to  merit  it,  but,  not  correspond- 
ing with  this  grace,  the  message  would  not  be  delivered  to   them. 

And  we  know  that,  in  point  of  fact,  many  who  heard  it,  did 
not  heed  it.  They  "loved  darkness  rather  tlian  the  light,"  for  the 
light  led  to  the  narrow  way  in  mIucIi  only  the  few  care  to  walk. 
Or,  "they  neglected,  going  their  way,  one  to  his  farm,  and  another 
to  his  merchandise ;"  or,  they  laid  hands  on  the  servants  of  the 
King,  and,  having   treated   them    contumeliously,  put   them   to  death. 

These  two  classes,  they  who  do  not  deserve  the  grace  of  faith, 
and  they  who  reject  it,  liave  constituted  the  great  majority  of  men^ 
in   every   age,  and   will    continue    to    do    so    to     the    end    of  time. 


216  SFEirOIfS  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

For,  "many  are  called,  and  few  are  chosen."  And  wide  is  the 
gate,  and  broad  is  the  way  that  leadeth  to  destruction,  and  many 
there  are  who  go  in  thereat.  How  narrow  is  the  gate  and  straight 
the   way    that   leadeth    to    life,  and   few   there   are   that    find   it. 

The  Catholicity  of  the  Church,  then,  was  to  be  not  physical, 
but  moral.  She  was  to  be  morally,  not  physically.  Catholic.  She 
was  not  to  include  all  men  within  her  fold,  or  even  the  majority  of 
them,  but  a  sufficient  number,  nevertheless,  to  show  that  she  had 
fulfilled  the  commission  of  her  divine  Founder,  to  "  teach  all 
nations."  These  words,  "all  nations,"  in  this  text  and  other  texts 
quoted  in  this  connection  cannot,  from  what  has  been  said,  be 
taken  in  a  physical  sense.  They  cannot  mean  absolutely  all  men.. 
They  must,  then,  be  taken  in,  at  least,  a  moral  sense.  The  Church 
^yas  to  be  so  diffused  as  that  she  could  be  said  with  truth  to  be 
world-wide.  Catholic,  universal,  though  actually  embracing  only  a 
minority  of  those  in  the  world. 

Again,  the  Catholicity  of  the  Church  was  not  to  be  simply  a 
material  Catholicity,  a  Catholicity  of  mere  numbers,  the  Catholicity 
of  a  crowd,  or  of  a  vast  number  of  crowds  scattered  over  the  face 
of  the  earth.  No ;  it  Mas  to  be  a  formal,  organic  Catholicity,  a 
Catholicity  in  unity.  The-  Church  was  to  grow  as  the  vine  grows. 
She  was  to  grow  as  the  grain  of  mustard  seed,  "which  is  the  least 
of  all  seeds,  but  which,  when  it  is  grown  up,  is  greater  than  any 
herbs,  and  becometh  a  tree,  so  that  tho  birds  of  the  air  come  and 
dwell  in  tlie  branches  thereof."  She  was,  in  a  word,  to  be  a 
growth,  not  an  aggregation,  and,  in  growing,  she  was,  by  the  very 
law  of  growth,  to  preserve  her  identity.  Spread  and  increase  as 
she  might,  she  was  always  to  remain  that  same  Church  on  which 
the  Holy  Ghost  had  descended  on  the  day  of  Pentecost.  Then 
the  Church  was  a  society,  an  independent,  perfect  society,  and  she 
must  needs  grow  as  a  society  grows,  by  bringing  her  newly  ac- 
quired members  under  obedience  to  a  common  autliority,  directing 
them  by  general  laws,  and  the  same  means,  to  the  attainment  of 
a  common  end,  and  thus  assimilating  them  to  and  incorporating 
them  in  herself. 

Her  mission,  the  work  she  had  to  do,  required  her  to  be 
Catholic,  and  to  be  Catholic  always.  Her  very  nature  and  her  con- 
stitution made  her  Catholicity  formal  and  organic.  She  was  to  be- 
come    Catholic    by    teaching     and    baptizing,    and    her   teaching   and 


THE  CATHOLICITY  OF  THE  CHURCH.  217 

governing  authority  was  to  j)reserve  and  perpetuate  her  Catholicity. 
It  was  well  calculated  to  do  so.  It  was  an  external,  visible, 
sjDeaking  authority,  caj^able  of  explaining  itself,  so  that  no  one 
could  possibly  mistake  its  meaning.  It  was  a  divine  authority, 
which  all  were  bound  to  obey  under  pain  of  eternal  death,  for  He 
who  gave  it  had  said:  '^He  that  hears  you,  hears  Me;"  "those 
that  do  not  believe   shall   be  condemned." 

Men,  indeed,  were  to  be  physically  free  to  recognize  that  au- 
thority or  not,  or  having  submitted  to  it,  to  again  reject  it. 
Those  who  were  invited  to  the  marriage  feast  would  not  come ; 
and  the  Apostle  tells  us,  "  there  must  be  also  heresies."  But  this 
Avas  not  to  hinder  or  destroy  the  Catholicity  of  the  Church.  If 
some  would  refuse  the  Gospel,  others  would  accept  it.  If,  in  the 
lapse  of  ages,  many  would  fall  away  from  Catholic  unity,  others 
would  take  their  places,  and  thus,  ''  the  wedding  would  be  filled 
with   guests." 

From  Avhat  has  been  said,  it  is,  I  think,  evident  that  Catho- 
licity is  an  essential  quality  or  attribute  of  the  Church  of  Christ. 
Let  me  now  endeavor  to  show  you  that  it  does  not  and  cannot 
belong  to  any  of  those  Christian  societies  not  in  communion  with 
the    Church   of  Rome. 

'If  we  consider  those  societies  singly  and  apart,  there  is  not 
one  of  them  that  can  claim  even  material  Catholicity.  Each  is 
restricted  to  a  particular  country ;  or,  if  we  find  societies  of  the 
same  name  in  two  or  more  countries,  we  shall  find  that  they 
diifer  more  or  less  in  doctrine,  and  are  wholly  independent  of  each 
other  in  government.  They  are  different  organizations,  different 
societies,  and  therefore  different  Churches.  Some  of  them,  indeed, 
have  insignificant  make-believe  missionary  stations  in  pagan  lands, 
but  these  exercise  no  appreciable  religious  influence  on  the  people 
amongst   whom   they    have    been    established. 

And  if  we  take  those  societies  collectively,  whatever  may  be 
said  of  their  material  Catholicity,  they  certainly  have  not  formal 
Catholicity.  Yet  without  this  formal  Catholicity,  though  they  miglit 
count  their  adherents  by  hundreds  of  millions,  they  would  have  no 
claim  whatever  to  be  regarded  as  the  Church  of  Christ.  They 
are  not  one  but  many  Churches,  differing  as  widely  from  each  other 
as  do  the  civil  governments  under  which  tliey  live,  and  to  which 
several   of  them   belong.     Such    of  them   as    are   State    Churches,    are 


'218  SEEJIOJ^^S  OF  TUB  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

organized  ou  national,  not  Catholic  lines,  and  these  as  well  as  those 
that  are  not  State  institutions,  make  it  a  standing  objection  to  us, 
that  we  recognize  a  supreme  authority  outside  the  countries  where  we 
-are.  They  thus,  implicitly  at  least,  deny  the  Catholicity  of  the 
Church  of  Christ,  for  how  could  she  be  Catholic  without  a  supreme 
general   authority  such   as  we  acknowledge  in  the    Bishop    of  Rome  ? 

"  The  Church,"  says  St.  Augustine,  "  is  everywhere,  and  heresy 
is  everywhere.  But  the  Church  is  everywhere  one  and  the  same ; 
lieresies  are  not  the  same,  but  most  different.  They  do  not  recog- 
nize each  other,  and  are  not,  therefore.  Catholic."  Nor  is  there 
anything  in  any  of  those  societies  that  would  give  hope  of  their 
formal  Catholicity  in  the  future.  Quite  the  contrary.  In  each  and 
every  one  of  them,  private  judgment  is  the  fundamental  rule  of 
faith,  and  private  judgment  sooner  or  later  reduces  religious  life 
to  individualism,  and  makes  authority,  which  is  the  formal  bond 
of  every  society,  civil  and  religious,  a  usurpation  and  a  contra- 
diction. If  every  one  of  those  societies  is  not  what  Macaulay  calls 
the  Church  of  England,  "a  hundred  sects  battling  within  one  Church," 
and  that,  let  me  add,  a  Church  which  nowadays  teaches  no 
doctrine  and  condemns  no  heresy,  and  which,  as  Dr.  Pusey  said, 
'^  has  made  England  a  numerous  nation  of  heathen,"  it  is  always 
in    a    fair    way    to    become    such. 

Then  Protestantism,  it  should  be  borne  in  mind,  was  not 
diffused  by  teaching  the  nations,  but  by  detaching  men  from 
the  Church,  and  that  chiefly  by  misrepresenting  her  doctrines,  by 
appeals  in  the  first  instance  to  the  grosser  passions,  and  by  brute 
force.  Kor  has  it  acquired  any  new  territory  since  the  Reforma- 
tion, except  by  colonization.  On  the  contrary,  it  has  everywhere 
lost  ground,  and  nowhere  more  than  in  its  former  strongholds. 
Germany  and  Switzerland  are  now  dominated  by  infidelity.  The 
Protestant  theologian  Claude  Harms,  said  of  Germany,  that  "  he 
could  write  ou  his  thumb  nail,  all  the  doctrines  of  the  reformers, 
still  universally  held  there,"  and  another  Protestant  writer  quoted 
by  the  Catholic  World  for  last  June,  compares  its  condition  to 
"that  of  pagan  Rome,  just  before  the  advent  of  Christ,  when  the 
people  had  ceased  to  bring  sacrifices,  and  cared  no  more  for  their 
idols,  yet  had  nothing  to  put  in  their  place."  Let  it  suffice  to 
add,  in  this  connection,  that  the  poor  remnant  of  orthodox  Prot- 
estantism   in    Prussia,    is    now    fighting   for    its    life    in   the    Catholic 


THE  CATHOLICITY  OF  THE  CHURCH.  219 

Centre  of  the  Reichstag,  under  the  leadership  of  the  eloquent 
Windthorst.  For  more  than  a  century,  Protestants  did  not  even 
<lream  of  evangelizing  the  heathen.  The  Synod  of  Dort  declared 
that,  for  any  one  to  expose  himself  to  the  danger  of  doing  so, 
without  a  special  mission  from  on  higli,  would  be  to  tempt  God. 
Not  thus  thought  St.  Paul,  the  "  vessel  of  election "  that  had  been 
chosen  to  carry  the  name  of  Christ  before  the  Gentiles.  "A  necessity 
lieth  upon  me,"  said  he,  "  for  woe  is  unto  me  if  I  preach  not  the 
Gospel."  He,  indeed,  and  the  other  Apostles  had  a  special  mission 
to  teach  the  Gentiles,  but  to  restrict  that  mission  to  the  Gentiles 
of  apostolic  times  would  be  simply  absurd,  and  would  be  to  blame 
the  action  of  even  modern  Protestants,  who  at  least  attempt  the 
conversion  of  the  heathen.  Nor  did  Protestants  undertake  anything 
of  importance  in  this  matter,  till  the  beginning  of  the  present 
century.  Since  then  they  have  spent  millions  yearly  on  foreign 
missions,  but  with  no  other  result  than  to  show  the  utter  barren- 
ness of  such  enterprises.  Protestant  missioners  have  succeeded  as 
traders ;  they  have  in  some  places  succeeded  as  school  teachers, — 
there  is  no  reason  why  they  should  not  have  done  so — but  they 
have  made  no  converts  to  speak  of.  They  have  been  able  to 
convince  many  of  their  pupils  of  the  folly  of  idolatry  and  poly- 
theism,— any  mere  deist  might  have  done  this, — but  the  scholars 
as  a  rule  became  infidels,  not  Christians.  Why,  it  is  enough  to 
say,  that  a  table  compiled  by  the  writer  in  the  CathoIlG  World 
already  referred  to  from  the  latest  edition  of  "  Christian  Missions," 
gives  but  eight  hundred  and  fifty  converts,  such  as  they  M'crc,  for 
all    the    Protestant    missions   in    Asia,    Africa    and    Australasia ! 

How    could   it    be   otherwise?     "If  any  one,"  says   Christ,  "abide 
not  in  Me,  he  shall  be  cast  forth  as  a  branch,  and  shall  wither." 

And,  now,  if  we  turn  our  thoughts  to  the  Church  in  communion 
with  Rome,  what  a  different  state  of  things  do  we  not  find!  From 
immemorial  time  she  has  had  material  Catholicity.  At  the  very  be- 
ginning of  the  second  century  the  Proconsul  Pliny  wrote  to  the 
Emperor  Trajan  that  Christianity  had  spread  so  widely  in  Bithynia 
that  "  the  temples  were  nearly  deserted  and  the  sacrifices  suspended." 
^'  There  is,"  says  St.  Justin  JNIartyr,  in  the  same  century,  "  no  peo- 
ple, whether  Greek  or  barbarian,  among  whom  prayers  and  thanks- 
giving are  not  offered  to  the  Father  and  Creator  of  the  world,  in 
the     name    of    Christ    crucified."       "We     arc    of    yesterday,"    says 


220  suEjroys  of  the  third  plenary  council. 

Tertullian,  "  and  we  fill  all  places,  leaving  to  you  only  the  tem- 
ples." "Everywhere,"  says  the  same  Father,  "are  to  be  found  the 
disciples  of  the  Crucified,  among  the  Parthians  and  Medes,  the 
Elamites  and  Mesopotamians,  in  Armenia  and  Phrygia,  Cappadocia 
and  Pontus,  Asia  Minor,  Egypt  and  Cyrene,  mingled  with  the 
various  tribes  of  the  Getuli  and  Moors  in  Gaul,  in  Spain,  in 
Britain    and    Germany." 

This  was  in  the  days  of  persecution.  This  was  in  times  when 
to  profess  Christianity  exposed  men  to  the  danger  of  losing  all  that 
is  most  precious  in  life,  and  life  itself  even,  under  tortures  the 
most  appalling.  After  the  conversion  of  Constantino,  when  the 
Church  was  able  to  walk  in  the  light  of  day,  we  see  her  lines 
extending  across  all  known  lands — in  Europe,  Africa  and  Asia — till 
they  lose  themselves  in  the  wastes  and  forests  of  the  outside  bar- 
.  barians.  Indeed,  so  completely  has  she  filled  the  Avorld  since  that 
time  that,  looking  back  through  the  centuries,  Ave  see  little  else  but 
her.  Her  history  since  then  may  be  said  to  be  the  history  of  the 
civilized  world. 

Heresies  and  schisms,  formidable  by  their  numbers  and  their 
influence,  went  out  from  her  from  time  to  time,  but  her  conquests 
more  than  compensated  her  for  the  losses  thus  sustained.  The 
empire  fell,  but  she  survived  it,  tamed  and  softened  its  fierce- 
destroyers,  and  formed  them  into  the  Christendom  of  the  Middle  Ages. 

She  increased  steadily  from  age  to  age,  and  her  growth  has  been 
most  rapid  during  the  last  four  centuries,  when  defections  from  her 
ranks  were  most  numerous  and  the  opposition  of  her  enemies  was 
most  formidable.  A  table  showing  the  gradual  growth  of  the 
Church  from  the  first  century  to  the  present  time  was  published 
recently  in  Germany  by  some  non-Catholic  statisticians.  According^ 
to  it,  she  had  in  the  first  century  five  hundred  thousand  mem- 
bers, in  the  second  two  millions,  in  the  third  five  millions,  in  the 
fourth  ten,  and  so  on  to  the  nineteenth,  when,  in  1876,  she  could 
count  two  hundred  and  sixty  millions. 

There  can  then  be  no  doubt  as  to  her  material  Catholicity. 
But  her  formal  Catholicity  is  equally  beyond  question.  St.  Ireneus 
says  of  the  Roman  Church :  "For  with  this  Church,  on  account  of 
her  more  powerful  principality,  it  is  necessary  that  every  Church, 
that  is,  the  faithful  who  are  on  all  sides,  should  agree."  This 
saint   was   a    Greek,    a    disciple    of    St.    Polycarp,    who    Avas    a    disci- 


THE  CATHOLICITY  OF  THE  CHURCH.  221 

pie  of  St.  John  the  Evangelist,  and  carried  with  him  into  Gaul, 
in  the  second  century,  the  apostolic  traditions  of  the  East.  The 
Bishops  of  Eome  have  ever  insisted  on  this  agreement,  and  de- 
fmed  its  limits.  They  have  always  claimed  a  primacy  of  honor 
and  jurisdiction  over  all  the  Churches  of  Christendom,  or,  as  St. 
■Chrysostom  expresses  it,  "  the  presidency  of  the  universal  Church," 
which  Christ  committed  to  Peter  after  his  fall,  and  the  claim  has 
teen  acknowledged  everywhere  and  always.  This  is  simply  matter 
of  fact,  but  of  fact  that  can  be  established  by  whole  volumes  of 
evidence,  and  which,  I  doubt  not,  will  be  satisfactorily  established 
in    the    course    of  these    evening    sermons. 

"  In  virtue  of  his  office,"  says  Archbishop  Kenriolc,  "  the  Pon- 
tiff teaches  with  authority,  and  directs  his  teaching  to  all  the 
•children  of  the  Church,  wherever  they  may  be  found,  pastors  and 
people;  he  pronounces  judgment  on  all  whose  faith  is  suspected, 
to  whatever  rank  they  belong ;  he  condemns  heresy  wherever  it 
may  have  originated,  or  by  whomsoever  it  may  be  supported;  he 
calls  on  his  colleagues,  the  bishops,  to  concur  in  the  condemna- 
tion; he  assembles  them  in  council  to  investigate  and  judge  with 
liim  the  controversies  that  are  raised,  or  to  concur,  by  their  har- 
monious judgment  and  action,  in  rooting  out  condemned  errors; 
he  promulgates  their  definitions  of  faith,  and  incessantly  guards 
the  sacred  deposit  of  divine  doctrine.  All  these  acts  have  been 
performed  in  all  ages  of  the  Church  by  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  as 
successor  of  St.  Peter,  and  have  been  universally  acknowledged  to 
be   the   prerogatives   and   duties    of  his    office." 

AVhoever  is  anxious  to  see  the  proofs  of  these  general  state- 
ments of  your  late  illustrious  archbishop,  will  find  them  in  his 
work  on   "The    Primacy,"   published  in  this  city  in   1857. 

And,  I  need  not  tell  you,  that  this  authority  of  the  Pope  over 
the  universal  Church  is  exercised  more  fully  and  more  freely  to-day 
than  at  any  former  time.  A  writer  in  a  recent  number  of  the 
{Contemporary  Review  says  of  the  reigning  Pontiff,  Leo  XIII,  in 
this  connection:  "On  May  28,  1878,  he  creates  the  Diocese  of 
Chicontrini  in  Canada ;  on  June  21,  the  Apostolic  Vicariate  of 
Kansuh  in  China;  on  July  31,  he  converts  the  Apostolic  Vicari- 
ate of  Montevideo  into  a  bishopric;  on  September  13,  he  cuts 
off  a   tract   of  territory  from    the    See    of  Canstantineh  and   annexes 


222  SEI^MO^■>s  of  tub  third  plenary  council. 

it  to  that  of  Algiers ;  on  December  20,  he  divides  the  Diocese  of 
Beverly  to  make  a  new  Diocese  of  Leeds ;  and,  in  September  of 
the  next  year,  makes  the  Church  of  St.  Anne  its  Cathedral ;  on 
January  20,  1880,  he  raises  the  Vicariate  of  Cracow  into  an  epis- 
copate, and  gives  it  a  new  territorial  definition ;  on  May  25,  he 
halves  the  Diocese  of  Yucatan,  in  Mexico,  and  forms  that  of 
Sabasco ;  on  July  29,  he  divides,  in  the  same  way,  the  Archiepis- 
copal  See  of  Santa  Fe  de  Bogola,  in  New  Granada,  and  forms  the 
Diocese  of  Sunza;  on  July  5,  1881,  he  constitutes  an  episcopal 
hierarchy  in  Bosnia  and  Herzigovina ;  on  September  30,  he  reduces 
the  number  of  the  Portuguese  bishoprics,  and  remodels  their  terri- 
torial   distribution." 

"  Every  thought  of  the  pontifical  heart,"  observes  the  same 
Avriter  farther  on,  "  dilates  and  broadens  to  embrace  the  world. 
He  is  the  only  power  in  existence  whose  inherent  and  essential 
obligation  it  is  to  go  on  incessantly  acquiring  and  extending  ovjiv 
all  civilized,  and  even  all  barbarous,  nations,  an  intellectual  and 
moral  ascendency." 

Yet  it  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  these  are  only  a  very  few 
acts  of  the  universal  jurisdiction  exercised  by  the  present  Pope 
since  his   elevation   to  the    Chair  of  Peter. 

It  is  then  evident  that  the  Churches  in  communion  with  Rome, 
whilst  having  each  her  own  local  government,  have  ever  been  in- 
tegral parts  of  one  great  Church,  under  one  supreme  head,  and 
that  this  Church,  and  this  alone,  has  been  always  Catholic  in  num- 
bers, in  doctrine,  in  government,  in  nnity,  and  has  had  in  the 
teaching  and  governing  authority  of  her  chief  bishop  a  principle 
preservative  of  her  unity  and  her  Catholicity.  She  alone,  then,  is 
the  Church  of  Christ.  For  a  church  that  is  not  Catholic  cannot 
teach  all  nations,  cannot  do  the  work,  to  do  which  Christ  estab- 
lished His  Church.  In  her,  too,  and  in  her  alone,  are  fulfilled  the 
prophecies    in   regard    to    the    Catholicity    of   Christ's    Church. 

She  is  that  "city  of  God"  of  which  "glorious  things  are  said." 
She  is  that  Church  promised  by  the  eternal  Father  to  His  only 
begotten  Sou,  when  He  said :  "Ask  of  Me,  and  I  will  give  Thee 
the  Gentiles  for  Thy  inheritance,  and  the  utmost  parts  of  the  earth 
for    Thy    possession." 

In  her  all  nations  praise  the  Lord.  She  speaks  to-day  as  she 
spoke  on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  "  in  diverse  tongues,  as  the  Holy 
Ghost  gives  her  to  speak." 


THE  CATHOLICITY  OF  THE  CHURCH.  22S 

They  were  her  children  in  whose  name  the  ancients  sang : 
"  Thou  hast  redeemed  ns  to  God,  in  Thy  blood,  out  of  every  tribe,, 
and  tongue,  and  people,  and  nation,  and  hast  made  us  to  our  God 
a   kingdom    and    priests,  and  we  shall  reign  on  the  earth." 

She,  in  fine,  is  the  Church  Avhich,  her  struggles  and  her  suffer- 
ings in  this  world  at  an  end,  will  form  "that  multitude  which 
no  man  can  nlimber,  of  all  nations,  and  tribes,  and  peoples,  and 
tongues,  that  will  stand  before  the  throne,  in  sight  of  the  Lamb, 
and  sing  His  praises  for  ever  and  ever." 


Cif^  ^^ttttitg  ^{  tti^  4^imtk^ 


SEEIOH  OF  RiaHT  REY.  JOHI  HEHESSY,  D.D., 

BISHOP   OF   DUBUQUE. 


"  Husbands,  love  your  wives  as  Christ  also  loved  the  Church  and  delivered  Himself 
■up  for  it,  that  He  might  sanctify  it,  cleansing  it  by  the  laver  of  water  in  the  word 
of  life,  that  He  might  present  it  to  Himself  a  glorious  Church,  not  having  spot  or 
wrinkle,  or  any  such  thing,  but  that  it  should  be  holy  and  without  blemish." — EpJie- 
sians,  c.  5,  v.  25-27" 

IN  the  verses  just  read,  St.  Paul  sets  before  us  two  stages  in  the 
life  of  the  Church,  one  in  time  and  the  other  in  eternity,  one 
a  stage  of  preparation  and  the  other  of  perfection ;  one  of  sanc- 
tification  and  the  other  of  glory,  in  which  she  shall  appear  without 
spot  or  wrinkle  or  tiny  such  thing.  She  is  at  present  on  the  M'ay 
to  what  she  will  be.  Our  Lord  delivered  Himself  up  to  sanctify 
her  by  the  laver  of  water  in  the  word  of  life ;  that  is,  by  faith 
and  baptism,  or  by  teaching  and  the  dispensation  of  mysteries. 
That  His  sacrifice  Avas  not  without  fruit  of  sanctity  is  declared 
implicitly  by  the  Apostle  when  he  speaks  of  Christ's  love  for  His 
Church,  and  proposes  it  as  a  model  to  every  Christian  husband. 
Knowing  the  relations  between  husband  and  wife  and  the  indis- 
soluble love  by  which  they  are  united,  the  Apostle  surely  wished 
and  desired  that  the  love  of  the  husband  for  his  wife  be  constant 
and  unremitting.  To  make  good  His  argument,  the  model  love 
should  not  be  less  perfect  than  its  imitation.  He  could  never  have 
proposed  to  a  Christian  husband  as  His  model  a  love  which  could 
be  interrupted,  whicli  could  degenerate  into  hate ;  therefore,  the 
love  of  Christ  for  His  Church  must  be  permanent — perpetual.  "No 
man  ever  hated  his  own  flesh,  but  nourisheth  and  cherisheth  it  as 
also    Christ    doth    the    Church."     Between    Christ    and    the    Church 

(224) 


nm 


^  P^ 


Very  -t'ev.  L.  Ooilbe, 


'Hfttev.  James' Slnih,  C.S.Sjk 


Very  llev,  John  -V.  Lemmens, 


Tnj-mvi'yt7T:-i 


THE  SANCTITY  OF  THE  CHURCH.  225 

there  never  can  be  hate.  As  the  object  of  Christ's  love  in  the 
Church  is  her  sanctity,  it  follows  that  it  also  must  ever  remain 
continuous,  unbroken,  v/ithout  interruption  of  any  kind.  It  must  be 
as  lasting  as  the  laver  of  water  and  the  word  of  life  that  produce 
it.  This  has  been  the  faith  of  the  ages.  It  is  the  teaching  of 
the  Apostles  and  of  the  Fathers  of  Nice  in  the  creeds  they  have  left 
ns.  It  is  found  unmistakably  in  the  noble  epithets  so  often  applied 
to  the  Church  throughout  the  New  Testament,  such  as,  "Kingdom 
of  Heaven,"  "City  of  God,"  "Temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost,"  "Body  of 
Christ."  It  is  the  crowning  attribute  of  God's  Church.  All  her 
other  properties  are  subservient,  to  it ;  all  her  agencies  and  activities 
conspire  to  produce  it.  It  is  the  life  of  all  and  the  end  here 
Lelow    of  their   existence    and    energies. 

Of  this  heavenly  property  of  the  visible  society  which  Christ 
instituted;  of  this  undying  life  of  the  Church  of  God  called  sanc- 
tity, it  is  my  privilege  to  speak  this  morning.  I  shall  endeavor  to 
show  you  in  what  it  consists,  how  it  is  produced  fundamentally, 
and   where   it   is   found   among  men. 

The  word  holy  has  various  significations.  It  is  applied  to  things 
as  well  as  to  persons.  Churches,  altars,  chalices  and  other  sacred 
vessels  are  called  holy  because  tliey  are  consecrated  to  the  service  of 
God.  Doctrine,  Sacraments  and  laws  are  called  holy  also  because  they 
serve  to  produce  holiness  in  the  individual  and  to  protect  it. 
Personal  sanctity  is  moral  rectitude  before  God,  implying  a  re- 
semblance to  Him  and  union  with  Him.  It  is  a  cleanliness  of 
soul  from  the  defilement  of  sin  which  in  the  present  state  of 
nature  is  produced  by  the  infusion  of  sanctifying  grace  and  super- 
natural virtues.  Sanctity  under  this  twofold  aspect  is  a  property 
of  the  Church,  which  as  a  Avhole  is  dedicated  to  the  service  of 
God  as  each  of  its  members  is  consecrated  thereto  in  the  Sacra- 
ment of  Baptism.  It  has  a  holy  doctrine  and  Holy  Sacraments, 
and   always    has  and    must    have  holy    members. 

Doctrine  and  Sacraments  are  called  holy  not  alone  because  they 
come  from  God,  but  because  they  are  given  to  produce  personal 
sanctity  and  are  capable  of  doing  so.  Nor  is  it  necessary  that 
they  should  produce  that  effect  in  every  instance,  since  sanctity 
in  the  adult  is  the  result  of  two  fiictors,  one  of  which  is  the 
co-operation  of  the  free  will  of  man.  As  this  co-operation  varies^ 
in    different    persons,    and    as    it    may    be    wholly    denied,    it    follows 

15 


226  si:iiMOJ\^s  of  the  third  plenary  council. 

that  the  consequences,  spiritual  death  or  weakness;  are  not  attribu- 
table to  the  Church  which  has  no  part  whatever  in  their  produc- 
tion, for  they  occur  in  spite  of  her,  but  are  to  be  set  down 
wholly  and  solely  to  the  malice  of  the  individual  or  to  his  im- 
perfect   dispositions. 

By  the  sanctity  of  the  Church  is  not  meant  that  all  its  mem- 
bers are  holy.  That  they  are  not  is  a  fact  declared  by  our  Lord 
in  j^arables  wliich  He  has  Himself  explained.  According  to  these 
the  Church  is  like  a  field  in  which  good  grain  and  cockle  grow 
up  together  till  tlie  harvest  time,  when  the  angels  come  to  sepa- 
rate them.  It  is  like  a  net  in  which  there  are  good  and  bad 
fishes ;  in  other  words,  it  is  a  society  composed  of  good  and  bad 
members,  of  sinners  and  saints,  and  it  will  continue  to  be  such 
to  the  end  of  time.  Nor  does  the  sanctity  of  the  Church  require 
that  the  saints  outnumber  the  sinners,  though  no  doubt  this  is 
always  the  fact ;  it  is  enough  that  the  Church  is  able  to  produce 
saints,  and  always  does  produce  them  in  notable  numbers.  As 
nations  are  called  prosperous  where  prosperity  is  within  the  reach 
of  all,  and  the  possession  of  many  in  a  remarkable  degree,  while 
others  tln-ough  their  own  fault  are  poor  and  miserable;  so  the 
Church  is  called  holy  since  all  her  members  may  be  holy,  though 
many  through  weakness  or  malice  are  pitiable  sinners.  Hence,  to 
find  fault  with  the  Church  because  there  are  sinners  in  her 
communion ;  to  reproach  her  with  scandals  which  exist  in  spite  of 
her,  and  which  like  the  cockle  in  the  field  are  the  work  of  the 
wicked  one;  to  deny  on  this  account  her  divine  institution,  and 
reject  her,  is  to  betray  ignorance  of  our  Lord's  description  of  her 
or  to  act  dishonestly.  The  misdeeds  of  sinners  belong  to  themselves; 
the  Church  has  no  share  in  them ;  they  have  no  force  as  objec- 
tions   to    her    sanctity. 

As  the  measure  of  grace,  whicli  is  according  to  the  giving  of 
Christ,  is  different  for  different  persons,  and  as  co-operation  there- 
Avitli  varies  with  the  dispositions  of  tliose  receiving  it,  it  follows 
that  in  those  who  are  holy  there  will  be  always  found  different 
degrees  of  sanctity.  There  are  usually  reckoned  three  such  degrees.. 
The  first  or  lowest  is  that  of  those  who  keep  out  of  mortal  sin, 
but  are  not  solicitous  to  avoid  venial  fixults.  The  second  degree 
aims  at  avoiding  deliberate  venial  sins  and  employs  means  adapted 
to    that   end.     This   is    said   to   include   also   the    observance   of    the 


THE  SANCTITY  OF  THE  CHURCH.  227 

counsels  in  the  religious  state.  Each  of  these  degrees  has  different 
grades.  The  third  degree  is  that  of  those  whose  virtue  is  heroic,  who 
uniting  to  extraordinary  grace  the  most  intense  fervor,  and  soaring 
on  the  wings  of  charity  to  the  very  presence  of  God,  so  far  sur- 
pass the  saints  of  their  day  in  the  practice  of  every  virtue  as  to 
seem  like  to  the  God-man  Himself.  These  degrees  and  grades  and 
countless  shades  of  sanctity,  differing  from  one  another  as  "  star 
doth  from  star  in  brightness,"  form  the  heavenly  vesture  of  the 
bride  of  Christ.  They  are  the  golden  robes  decked  Avith  every 
variety  of  ornament,  in  which  the  Royal  Prophet  saw  the  spouse 
of  Christ  clothed  when  he  said  to  the  king,  "  The  queen  stood  on 
thy  right  hand  in  gilded  clothing  surrounded  with  variety."  Her 
robes  reveal  the  queen ;  sanctity  marks  the  spouse  of  Christ  and 
proclaims    to    the    world    her    heavenly   origin. 

To  sanctify  His  Church  and  prepare  it  for  that  stage  in  which 
it  should  appear  without  spot  or  wrinkle,  our  Lord  established 
therein  a  ministry.  This  ministry  was  to  take  up  His  work  tmd 
continue  it  forever.  It  Avas  to  apply  the  merits  of  His  passion  to 
those  for  whom  He  died.  He  made  it  perpetual.  He  gave  it  the 
whole  world  as  its  field  of  labor  and  all  time  as  the  duration  of  its 
mission.  He  gave  it  a  vitality  that  could  not  know  death,  a  prin- 
ciple of  growth  and  a  power  of  attraction  and  assimilation  to  meet 
all  its  wants.  He  rooted  it  in  His  own  priesthood.  He  took  it  by 
the  hand  to  walk  with  it  and  work  with  it  through  the  ages,  and 
the  nations  bless  its  labors  and  make  them  fruitful.  He  sent  His 
Holy   Spirit    to   dwell    in    it    and   abide   with    it    forever. 

To  these  ministers  He  gave  all  His  doctrine,  the  whole  Gospel, 
and  secured  to  them  its  possession.  He  gave  them  a  Sacrifice  and 
Sacraments  for  the  sake  of  His  people.  He  made  them  priests, 
dispensers    of  the    mysteries   of  God,    and    rulers    of  His  Church. 

The  Apostles  were  the  first  members  of  this  ministry.  They  were 
sent  to  teach  all  nations,  baptizing  them,  etc.  They  did  as  they 
were  commanded.  They  taught  by  the  grace  of  God,  they  pro- 
duced faith  and  thereby  brought  the  proud  intellect  of  man  to  the 
feet  of  God.  They  baptized.  By  baptism  they  cleansed  the  soul 
from  all  defilement  of  sin,  and  made  the  human  will  subject  to 
the  law  of  God.  They  brought  the  whole  man  to  the  foot  of 
God's  throne.  They  (Established  God's  sovereignty  over  man  and 
secured    his    obedience.       They    harmonized    all   the    powers    of    the 


228  i^ERlIOA^S  OF  TUB  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

soul,  set  it  at  peace  with  God,  made  it  holy  and  thereby  fitted  it 
for  heaven,  "  He  that  believes  and  is  baptized  shall  be  saved." 
They  Avho  were  baptized  were  born  again  of  water  and  the  Holy 
Ghost;  they  received  a  new  birth;  in  tlie  strong  language  of  the 
Apostle  they  were  made  new  creatures,  with  new  powers  and  a  new 
destiny;  they  were  lifted  into  the  supernatural  order,  where  they 
could    lead    lives    meritorious    of  heaven. 

The  life  given  in  baptism,  like  every  other  life,  comes  from 
God.  Like  every  other  life,  vegetable,  animal,  human,  it  depends 
for  its  continuance  and  preservation  on  secondary  causes.  Like 
these,  it  has  a  nutriment  and  safe-guard  of  its  own  order.  In  the 
economy  of  God,  it  was  to  be  nourished  by  the  blessed  Eucha- 
rist, true  bread  from  heaven,  developed,  strengthened  and  perfected 
by  the  Holy  Ghost  and  His  gifts  and  graces  in  the  Sacrament 
of  Confirmation.  It  was  to  be  restored  by  penance  when  lost  by 
sin,  and  was  to  be  preserved  in  a  trying  hour  against  the  final 
and  fierce  assaults  of  principalities  and  powers  by  the  mysterious 
influence  of  the  last  anointing.  To  give  and  preserve  this  life 
was  the  work  of  Christ's  ministers.  They  were  to  carry  it  to  the 
nations  that  were  given  to  Him  as  an  inheritance  and  to  the 
ends  of  the  earth  which  were  to  be  His  possession.  The  power 
of  working  miracles  was  to  be  a  means  to  this  end.  It  was 
promised  to  thera  by  our  Lord.  It  is  numbered  by  the  Apostle 
among  the  gifts  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  They  exea'cised  this  power 
as  the  spirit  prompted  for  the  sake  of  the  infidel,  on  whose  ac- 
count it  was  given.  Like  our  Lord  Himself,  they  proved  to 
him  thereby  the  divinity  of  their  mission,  established  their  un- 
doubted claim  to  his  reasonable  service,  and  if  not  converted,  left 
him  without  excuse  in  his  unbelief.  As  commanded,  they  taught 
those  whom  they  baptized  to  obsen^c  all  things  whatsoever  Christ 
commanded  or  delivered  to  them,  ("  quoeumque  mandavi  vobis "),  to 
observe  the  whole  Gospel  which  they  were  to  preach  to  every 
creature,  counsels  as  well  as  precepts,  poverty,  chastity  and  obedi- 
ence as  well  as  justice  and  brotherly  love.  As  the  commission  to 
teach,  thus  rooted  in  Omnipotence — "All  power  is  given  to  Me  in 
heaven  and  on  earth,"  etc. — aided  efficaciously  by  our  Lord  all 
days  even  to  the  consummation  of  the  world,  brooded  over  and 
blessed  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  could  not  fa'il  of  effect,  could  not 
prove    barren ;    as    it    must   succeed    and    prove   fruitful,    it    follows 


THE  SANCTITY  OF  THE  CHURCH.  229 

that  the  observance  of  the  whole  Gospel  counsels  as  well  as  com- 
mands must  ever  characterize  the  life  of  God's  Church  and  be 
inseparable  from  her  sanctity.  The  whole  Gospel,  as  a  living  fact 
in  the  hearts  of  her  children,  is  the  sanctity  of  the  Church,  and 
this  fruit  of  a  divine  ministry  can  never  be  dissevered  from  fe- 
cundity   and    the    gift    of  miracles. 

How  this  sanctity  embracing  all  the  virtues  of  the  Gospel  with 
the  gifts  of  fruitfulness  and  miracles  is  produced,  Avill  be  better 
understood  by  a  further  analysis  of  the  constitution  of  the  Church. 
The  supernatural  society  instituted  and  organized  by  Christ  has 
two  elements,  a  divine  and  human,  so  united  and  so  related  that 
the  Church  is  thereby  a  striking  image  of  the  mystery  of  the 
Incarnation.  As  the  mystery  of  the  Incarnation  is  the  ineffable 
and  indissoluble  union  of  God  and  man  in  the  person  of  Jesus 
Christ,  so  is  the  Church  the  marvellous  and  indissoluble  union 
of  humanity  and  divinity.  To  regard  the  Church  as  composed  of 
men  only,  even  admitting  its  divine  institution,  is  an  error  similar 
to  that  which  would  declare  Christ  to  be  a  mere  man.  As  a 
correct  conception  of  our  Lord  and  Redeemer  embraces  two  natures, 
a  divine  and  human  united  forever,  so  does  a  correct  conception  of 
the  Church  require  two  elements,  a  divine  and  human  united 
indissolubly.  Any  error  regarding  either  element,  the  nature  of 
their  union  and  mutual  relations,  is  fundamental  and  mus^prove 
the    fruitful    source    of  many    others. 

The  Church  is  frequently  compared  in  the  Sacred  Scriptures 
with  the  human  body,  living  and  active.  As  the  soul  is  in  the 
body,  the  Holy  Ghost  is  in  the  Church.  He  was  promised  at 
the  Last  Supper.  He  was  given  to  her  at  Pentecost  to  be  in  her 
and  to  abide  with  her  forever.  Numerous  texts  of  Scripture  con- 
firm this  truth ;  tradition  in  a  variety  of  forms  repeats  it.  St. 
Paul,  in  his  letter  to  the  Corinthians,  says  that  the  Holy  Ghost 
distributes  graces  in  the  Church :  "  There  are  diversities  of  graces 
but  the  same  Spirit."  (I.  Cor.,  c.  xii,  v.  4.)  Among  these  graces 
he  names  that  of  miracles,  and  concludes  by  saying:  "All  these 
things  one  and  the  same  sj^irit  worketh,  dividing  to  every  one 
according  as  he  will."  And  St.  Ircnajus  says:  "Where  the  Church 
is,  there  is  the  Spirit  of  God.  And  where  the  Spirit  of  God  is, 
there  is  the  Church  and  every  grace."  The  Church,  the  Holy 
Ghost  and  every   grace,  that    is    all    the  virtues,    the     observance  of 


230  SL'Eiiojys  OF  tub  tiiied  plenary  council. 

the  whole  Gospel,  counsels  and  commandments  arc  inseparable  for- 
ever. Find  one  and  you  have  the  others.  The  union  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  ^Yith  the  Church  is  perpetual,  indissoluble.  It  is  not  like 
tlie  union  of  tlie  soul  and  body  which  is  severed  by  death ;  nor 
like  that  of  the  soul  with  God  by  grace  which  is  destroyed  by 
grievous  sin ;  it  is  attended  with  no  conditions,  it  depends  on  the 
will  of  no  man  or  set  of  men,  it  is  an  absolute  fact  made  so  by 
an  act  of  the  omnipotent  will  of  God.  As  He  placed  the  sun  in 
the  heavens  to  rule  the  day,  and  the  moon  and  stars  to  rule  the 
night,  and  no  man  can  interfere  with  these  ordinances,  so  did 
He  place  the  Holy  Ghost  in  His  Church  to  do  His  work  therein 
and   abide    there  forever. 

Not  only  is  the  Holy  Ghost  in  the  Church  as  the  soul  in 
the  body,  but  every  member  of  the  Church  is,  as  it  were,  formed 
by  Him,  passes,  so  to  speak,  through  His  hands.  "Unless  a 
man  be  born  again  of  water  and  the  Holy  Ghost  lie  cannot  enter 
into  the  kingdom  of  God."  As  He  formed  the  human  body  of 
God's  eternal  Son,  by  the  will  of  heaven,  in  the  chaste  womb  of 
the  Virgin  Mary,  out  of  her  virginal  flesh  and  blood,  and  made  it 
a  temple  in  which  He  has  never  since  ceased,  and  never  will  cease, 
to  dwell,  so  in  like  manner,  the  formation  of  the  second  body, 
the  mystic  Body  of  Christ  in  every  member  out  of  the  great  mass 
of  hgkianity,  is  His  work  and  His  dwelling  place  forever.  His 
special  work  in  the  Church  is  its  sanctification.  It  is  the  proper 
object  of  His  temporal  mission.  This  is  the  idea  the  Apostles 
meant  to  convey  by  the  words  of  the  Creed :  "  I  believe  in  the 
Holy  Ghost,  the  holy  Catholic  Church."  They  not  only  believed 
in  the  Holy  Ghost  as  one  of  the  persons  of  the  most  adorable 
Trinity,  but  expressed  their  belief  in  Him  as  an  agent  here  below 
doing  a  visible  work,  that  is,  operating  in  the  Catholic  Church 
and  making  her  holy.  As  they  professed  their  faith  in  God  the 
Father  as  the  Creator  of  heaven  and  earth,  and  in  God  the  Son 
as  tlie  Iledeemer  of  the  world,  so  did  they  in  God  the  Holy 
Ghost  as  the  spirit  by  whom  the  Church  is  sanctified.  With  good 
reason  therefore  did  St.  Irenaeus  say :  "  AVhere  the  spirit  of  God 
is  there  is  the  Church  and  every  grace,  that  is  the  sum  of  all 
the    virtues." 

The  Holy  Ghost  is   the  vivifying  principle  of  the  Church,  because 
Christ,  whose  spirit  He  is,  is   its    divine  Head.     In  speaking  of  the 


THE  SANCTITY  OF  THE  CHURCH.  231 

Church,  St.  Paul  very  frequently  compares  it  with  the  human  body. 
It  is  a  living  body,  of  which  Christ  is  tlie  Head,  as  the  Holy 
Ghost  is  the  soul.  The  relations  between  the  Church  and  Christ, 
its  Head  as  described  by  the  Apostle,  throw  a  flood  of  light  on 
the  question  of  her  sanctity.  Employing  his  favorite  comparison, 
St.  Paul  writes  to  the  Romans :  "  For  as  in  one  body  we  have 
many  members,  but  all  the  members  have  not  the  same  office,  so 
we  being  many,  are  one  body  in  Christ,  and  every  one  members 
of  another."  (Rom.,  c.  xii,  v.  4.)  That  is,  no  matter  how  numer- 
ous are  the  members  of  the  Church,  be  they  counted  by  millions 
or  by  billions,  no  matter  how  varied  their  offices,  they  all  are  one 
body  in  Christ  and  by  reason  of  their  union  with  Him,  they  are 
members  one  of  another.  To  the  Corinthians  he  writes :  "  For 
as  the  body  is  one,  and  hath  many  members,  and  all  the  members 
of  the  body,  whereas  tliey  are  many,  yet  are  one  body,  so  also  is 
Christ;  that  is,  as  tlie  human  body  is  one,  though  it  has  many 
members,  so  is  the  Body  of  Christ  or  the  Church  one,  though  it 
has  many  members."  (I.  Cor.,  c.  xii,  v.  12,  13.)  But  instead  of 
saying  Church,  which  he  compares  to  the  human  body,  he  says 
Christ,  as  if  Church  and  Christ  were  synonyms.  Again  he  says : 
"  For  in  one  spirit  were  we  all  baptized  into  one  body,  now  you 
are  the  Body  of  Christ  and  members  of  member."  (Cor.,  c.  xii, 
v.  13-27.)  Speaking  to  the  Ephesians  of  the  love  of  Christ  for 
His  bride,  the  Church,  he  says  :  "  No  one  ever  hated  his  own 
flesh,  but  nourisheth  and  cherisheth  it  as  also  Christ  doth  the 
Church.  For  we" — that  is,  all  true  Christians  as  w^ell  as  St.  Paul 
and  the  Ephesians — "are  members  of  His  body,  of  His  flesh  and 
of  His  bones."  (Eph.,  c.  v,  v.  29-30.)  We  are  members  of  His 
humani^-y,  for  the  Cliurch  is  the  second  Eve  taken  from  the  side 
of  the  second  Adam  as  He  slept  on  Calvary.  And  as  Adam  said 
of  Eve  when  presented  to  him  by  God  :  "  This  is  bono  of  my  bones 
and  flesh  of  my  flesh,"  (Gen.,  c.  ii,  v.  23,)  so  does  Christ  say  of  His 
Church  by  the  lips  of  His  inspired  Apostle:  "We  are  members  of  His 
body,  of  His  flesh  and  of  His  bones."  He  took  our  nature  by  be- 
coming man;  became  bone  of  our  bone  and  flesh  of  our  flesh.  He 
made  that  nature  His  own;  He  made  it  the  nature  of  our  Head. 
And  this  He  gives  back  to  us  in  baptism — not  to  speak  of  the 
Blessed  Eucharist — purified,   elevated,   all  but  deified. 

Discoursing  on  the  power  and  pre-eminence  of  Christ,  the  Apostle 


232  SERMONS  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

says :  "And  He  (the  Father)  hath  subjected  all  things  under  His 
feet,  and  hath  made  Him  Head  over  all  the  Church,  which  is 
His  body,  and  the  fulness  of  Him  Avho  is  filled  all  in  all." 
(Epli.,  c.  i.,  V.  22-23.)  "And  He  is  the  head  of  the  body  .... 
because  in  Him  it  hath  well  pleased  the  Father  that  all  fulness 
should  dwell."  (Colos.,  c.  i,  v.  18-19.)  That  is,  the  fulness  of 
the  body  comes  from  the  head,  and  all  the  members  according  ta 
their  place  or  office,  thus  filled,  furnish  the  head  with  a  body 
suitable  to  it,  a  body  which  is  the  fulness  of  Him  wdio  is  filled 
all    in    all. 

In  the  fourth  chapter  of  his  letter  to  the  Ephesians  he  says :  "  And 
He  gave  some  Apostles  and  some  Prophets  and  other  some  Evan- 
gelists and  other  some  pastors  and  doctors  for  the  perfecting  of 
the  saints,  for  the  work  of  the  ministry,  for  the  edifying  of  the 
Body  of  Christ."  .  .  .  .  "  By  doing  the  truth  in  charity  we 
may  in  all  things  grow  up  in  Him,  who  is  the  Head,  even  Christy 
from  whom  the  whole  body  being  compacted  and  fitly  joined  to- 
gether, by  what  every  joint  supplieth,  according  to  the  operation 
in  the  measure  of  every  part,  maketh  increase  of  the  body  unto 
the  edifying  of  itself  in  charity."  (Eph.,  c.  iv,  v.  11-16.)  To 
the  Collossians  he  writes  of  heretics :  "And  not  holding  the  Head, 
from  which  the  whole  body,  by  joints  and  bands  being  supplied  with 
nourishment  and  compacted,  groweth  unto  the  increase  of  God." 
(Colos.  c.  ii,  V.  19.)  These  grand  and  sublime  passages  of  St.  Paul 
regarding  the  union  of  Christ  and  His  Church,  the  relations  between 
them  and  the  mysterious  operation  by  which  she  lives  and  grows, 
set  before  us  boldly  and  vividly  the  economy  by  which  her  sanc- 
tity is  produced  and  made  permanent.  The  teaching  of  the  Apostle 
in  the  texts  cited  may  be  briefly  summed  up  as  follows  :  That  all 
the  faithful  united  to  Christ  the  Head,  and  through  Him  to  each 
other,  form  one  body,  and  this  body,  the  Church,  is  called  Christ 
by  the  Apostle,  as  if  Church  and  Christ  were  one.  That  all  Chris- 
tians are  so  united  by  baptism  to  the  humanity  of  Christ,  and  so 
formed  from  it  that  they  are  bone  of  His  bone  and  flesh  of  His 
flesh,  or,  as  the  Apostle  more  boldly  puts  it,  members  of  His  body, 
of  His  flesh  and  of  His  bones.  That  in  Christ  the  Head,  by  the  gift 
of  the  Father,  dwells  permanently  and  absolutely  the  plenitude  of 
grace  and  truth  and  all  virtue,  and  from  this  fulness  diffused 
throughout    all   the    members  comes    the    fulness    of    the    body  which 


THE  SANCTITY  OF  THE  CHURCH.  233 

completes,  so  to  speak,  the  Head  by  its  adaptation  to  it.  That  this 
Head,  when  glorified  on  the  right  hand  of  the  Father,  after  having 
led  captivity  captive,  gave  gifts  to  men,  even  His  own  Spirit;  that 
these  gifts  were  made  to  a  ministry  composed  of  Apostles,  Prophets, 
Evangelists,  pastors  and  doctors;  that  this  ministry,  by  the  use  of 
•these  gifts,  build  up  the  Body  of  Christ  unto  the  perfecting  of  the 
saints,  that  is,  unto  perfect  sanctity;  that  by  these  ministrations  each 
member  of  the  body,  according  to  its  office,  dispositions  and  the 
measure  of  grace  vouchsafed  to  it,  grows  up  in  the  head  Christ, 
and  that  this  increase  in  all  the  members,  collectively  considered, 
which  is  the  growth  of  the  body  in  charity,  is  also  called  by  the 
Apostle  in  his  letter  to  the  Collossians,  with  his  wonted  vigor,  the 
growth  of  God.  This  growth  of  the  body,  this  growth  of  God  and 
the  life  that  underlies  it,  is  the  sanctity  of  the  Church  which  exter- 
nally manifested  as  it  must  be,  being  the  life  and  growth  of  a 
visible  society,  distinguishes  that  society  from  all  others,  and  marks 
it    clearly    as    the    dwelling    place    of  God    with    men. 

Unless  you  realize  that  the  Holy  Ghost  is  in  the  Church  as 
the  soul  is  in  the  Body,  preserving  doctrine,  distributing  gifts  and 
graces,  building  up  the  Body  of  Christ  and  working  unceasingly 
for  its  sanctification ;  unless  you  realize  that  Jesus  Christ  is  the 
head  of  the  Church  which  He  loves  as  His  own  Body,  as  His 
bride  to  whom  He  is  indissolubly  united  by  a  mystic  marriage, 
with  a  love  stronger  than  death,  for  He  died  to  sanctify  her ; 
unless  you  realize  that  all  her  fulness,  all  her  truth  and  grace 
and  beauty  are  from  Him,  communicated  by  a  most  mysterious 
operation  through  the  appointed  channels ;  unless  you  realize  the 
existence  of  two  elements  in  the  Church,  the  divine  and  the  hu- 
man, their  union  and  relations,  how  the  divine  acts  on  the 
human  as  the  soul  on  the  body,  how  the  human  responds  to  such 
action  and  co-operates  with  it  as  the  brain  and  nerves  and  senses 
do  to  the  action  of  the  soul;  unless  you  realize  all  this  and  more, 
you  can  have  no  correct  conception  of  the  Church  of  God,  and 
consequently  none  of  the  great  and  incommunicable  attribute  of 
her   sanctity. 

These  two  elements  are  as  essential  to  the  Church  as  two 
natures  are  to  Jesus  Christ.  As  Christ  was  not  God  only  nor  a 
mere  man,  but  God  and  man  at  once,  so  the  Church  is  not  a 
divine    society    or   a   human    society   only,    but   is    a    union    of  both. 


:234  SERMOXS  of  the  third  plenary  council. 

a  society  at  once  divine  and  human.  As  the  human  will  of 
Christ,  though  free,  was  so  controlled  by  the  divine  nature  that 
it  could  neither  sin  nor  be  for  an  instant  out  of  harmony  with 
the  divine  will ;  so  the  Church,  the  Body  of  Christ,  though  com- 
posed of  those  whose  wills  are  free,  and  intellects  weak,  and  pas- 
.sions  strong,  is  so  governed,  directed  and  influenced  by  her  divine' 
Head,  that  she  can  never  for  an  instant  betray  the  truth  confided 
to  her  by  God  for  the  sake  of  His  people,  or  lose  the  charity 
with  which  tlie  Holy  Ghost  filled  her  on  the  glorious  feast  of 
Pentecost.  The  divine  nature  of  Christ  so  filled  His  humanity 
with  heavenly  gifts  through  their  mysterious  union,  that  there  is 
betAveen  both  an  interchange  of  attributes,  so  that  God  is  man 
and  man  is  God.  So  true  is  this  of  the  elements  of  tlie  Church, 
of  the  Church  and  her  Head,  that  the  Apostle  calls  the  Church 
Christ,  and  that  they  who  hear  the  Church  hear  Clu'ist,  and  they 
who  persecute  the  Church  persecute  Christ.  As  the  only  begotten 
Son  of  God  took  a  human  body  by  the  power  and  operation  of 
the  Holy  Ghost  to  redeem  man  and  reinstate  him  in  God's  friend- 
ship ;  as  it  Mas  in  that  body  He  dwelt  among  men,  commencing 
by  it  the  fulfillment  of  an  eternal  plan ;  as  it  was  in  it  and  by 
it  He  taught  them,  blessed  them,  healed  their  infirmities,  offered 
sacrifice  for  them,  and  enriched  them  with  gifts;  so,  according  to 
the  same  eternal  plan,  it  is  in  a  human  body,  a  human  society, 
formed  also  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  that  He  continues  the  work  of 
teaching,  ruling,  blessing,  offering  sacrifice  and  dispensing  mysteries 
in  order  to  sanctify  His  Church  and  make  to  Plimself  a  spouse 
without  spot  or  wrinkle.  As  the  divine  nature  of  Christ  acting  on 
the  human,  to  which  it  was  united,  filled  the  soul  to  overflowing 
with  grace  and  truth,  vested  the  body  with  the  glory  of  the  trans- 
figuration, made  the  members  thereof  instruments  of  miraculous 
powers,  communicating  this  virtue  even  to  the  hem  of  its  gar- 
ment; so  the  same  God-Man,  Head  of  the  Church,  by  His  Holy 
Spirit,  in  His  ovrn  way,  through  appointed  channels,  fills  the  soul 
of  His  beloved  spouse  with  grace  and  truth,  producing  in  her 
thereby  faith  and  hope  and  charity,  clothes  her  with  all  the  vir- 
tues of  the  Gospel  as  with  a  precious  robe  of  peerless  beauty, 
makes  her  members  instruments  of  divine  power,  and  imparts  that 
gift  not  alone  to  their  relics  or  to  the  hem  of  their  garment,  but 
even    to    their    very    shadow   as    they  walked    along   the     streets    in 


THE  SANCTITY  OF  THE  CIIURCn.  235 

the  clays  of  their  probation.  Nearly  nineteen  hundred  years  ago 
a  man  revealed  to  men  on  the  hills  and  in  the  valleys,  by  lake 
iind  river  in  Judea  the  presence  of  the  eternal  Son  of  God  as  their 
Redeemer,  and  proved  that  presence  not  alone  by  signs  and  won- 
ders, but  by  a  life  of  superhuman  perfection ;  ever  since,  a  society 
of  men  organized  by  God  as  His  body  and  filling  the  earth, 
found  everywhere,  reveals  to  the  world  the  abiding  presence  of 
Jesus  Christ  and  His  Spirit,  and  proves  it  by  the  same  line  of 
argument,  by  the  same  powers,  and  the  same  virtues.  The  biogra- 
phy of  Christ  is  complete  only  in  two  chapters  or  volumes,  to 
wit :  the  Gospels  and  Church  history.  The  life  of  the  Church 
is  the  second  chapter ;  it  is  the  life  of  Christ  and  His  Holy 
Spirit  in  society,  and  that  life,  like  His  life  in  the  flesh,  is 
and  ever  must  be  holy,  wonderful,  fruitful,  and  visible.  It  is  our 
great  argument  that  God  is  with  us.  Now  you  can  understand 
why  the  Church  is  called  in  the  New  Testament  "the  Kingdom  of 
God,  the  Kingdom  of  Christ,  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  the  Holy 
City,  the  New  Jerusalem,  the  House  of  God,  the  House  of  Christ, 
the  Great  House,  the  Temple  of  God,  the  Holy  Temple  of  God,  the 
Temple  of  the  Living  God,  the  Temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  one  Body, 
and  that  the  Body  of  Christ;"  why  the  holy  Fathers  apply  to  it 
half  a  hundred  epithets  of  similar  import ;  why  the  Royal  Prophet, 
as  he  gazed  on  it  in  spirit,  called  it  the  holy  mountain,  as  if 
sanctity  were  its  chief  or  sole  attribute ;  why  tlie  Prophet  Isaias 
said  of  the  Church  that  her  stones  would  be  laid  in  order  and 
her  foundations  laid  with  sapphires,  that  her  bulwarks  would  be  of 
jasper,  her  gates  of  graven  stones,  and  all  her  borders  of  lovely 
stones — that  she  should  be  as  a  crown  of  glory  in  the  hand  of 
the  Lord,  and  a  royal  diadem  in  the  hand  of  her  God — that  her 
children  should  be  taught  of  God,  and  that  great  should  be  their 
peace — that  is,  sanctity — a  peace  or  sanctity  which  the  Psalmist  de- 
■clared  should  abound  and  flow  over  and  last  till  the  moon  be 
taken  away,  that  is,  forever. 

Sanctity  such  as  I  have  endeavored  to  describe  it  is  an  at- 
tribute of  the  Church.  Its  external  manifestation  is  a  mark  of  it. 
It  is  essential  to  the  Church  and  incommunicable,  that  is,  only 
the  Church  of  God  can  possess  it,  and  being  visible  it  is  before  the 
world,  and  may  be  seen  by  all.  "Whatever  Christian  society  possesses 
it,    that    and    only    that    is    the     Church   of    God.     What    Christian 


236  SUEMOJS'S  OF  TUB  TRIED  FLENABY  COUNCIL. 

society  does  possess  it  is  the  question  now  before  us.  Or  to  put 
this  question  more  fully  and  pointedly,  what  society  of  Christians 
instituted  by  Jesus  Christ,  and  therefore  existing  since  His  time, 
organized  and  compacted  into  one  body,  His  own  Body,  all  whose 
members  are  knitted  together  like  those  of  the  human  body, 
having  teachers,  rvilers,  dispensers  of  mysteries  in  the  successors 
of  the  Apostles  to  build  up  that  body  to  perfection,  can  justly 
lay  claim  to  all  tlie  virtues  that  constitute  sanctity,  to  all  the  vir- 
tues of  the  Gospel,  point  to  the  means  that  have  produced  them 
and  to  the  miraculous  gifts  that  have  accompanied  them?  Can 
Protestantism  do  this?  Even  if  it  represented  a  society,  or  a  body,, 
or  a  temple,  or  a  kingdom,  which  it  does  not  even  in  the  re- 
motest manner ;  even  if  it  were  not  a  motley  multitude  of  warring^ 
sects,  each  of  which  may  become  the  fruitful  parent  of  many  others, 
it  would  be  debarred  by  its  youth  from  claiming  with  any  show 
of  plausibility  the  essential  and  incommunicable  attribute  of  a 
society    fifteeen    centuries    older. 

The  visible  society  on  which  God  set  this  mark,  that  all  may 
know  it  to  be  His,  and  which,  as  a  property,  is  the  very  object 
of  its  existence,  has  been  laboring  among  men  eighteen  hundred 
years  openly  in  all  parts  of  tlie  earth.  This  settles  the  question 
of  the  Protestant  claim  when  suck  happens  to  be  made,  for  you 
Avill  be  surprised  to  learn  that  the  Church  of  England  is  said  to 
deny  (has  denied,  in  fact,  according  to  Dr.  Murray)  that  sanctity 
is  an  essential  attribute  of  the  Church  of  God.  To  enquire  further 
into  the  grounds  of  such  a  claim  on  the  part  of  Protestants  is 
a  superfluous  work.  Nor  is  it  an  agreeable  one.  Did  not  such 
a  question  manifestly  come  within  the  scope  of  this  instruction, 
did  it  not  form  its  chief  aim  in  a  certain  sense  ?  I  should  for 
obvious  reasons  gladly  pass  it  over,  but  as  I  cannot  do  so  alto- 
gether without  a  notable  void,  I  shall  touch  it  as  lightly  as  possible 
and  in  a  half-hearted  fashion,  leaving  those  who  feel  so  disposed 
to  compare  Protestantism  and  its  principle  with  the  picture  I  have 
endeavored  to  give  of  the  Church  and  her  sanctity.  I  have  no 
'inclination  whatever  to  examine  the  lives  of  the  leaders  of  that 
religious  rebellion  of  the  sixteenth  century  which  brought  so  many 
and  varied  disorders  in  its  train  ;  of  those  men  who  set  themselves 
up  as  reformers  of  the  bride  of  Christ,  the  object  of  His  un- 
dying  love,   and   ended   by   discarding   her,   though  such  an  enquiry 


THE  SANCTITY  OF  THE  CHURCH.  237 

would  be  very  much  to  the  point.  To  speak  of  Martin  Luther, 
a  Roman  Catholic  priest,  an  Augustinian  monk,  bound  to  religion 
and  to  God  by  the  sacred  vows  of  poverty,  chastity  and  obedi- 
ence, who,  by  a  farcical  marriage,  became  the  reputed  husband 
•of  a  nun  who  had  contracted  before  God  similar  obligations — to 
sj^eak  of  his  sottish  habits,  lils  boorish  manners,  his  vulgar,  ob- 
scene conversation,  his  ungovernable  temper,  his  rabid  fury  when 
contradicted,  his  scurrilities,  his  blasphemies — to  speak  of  his  asso- 
<3iatcs  and  imitators,  Zwingli,  Calvin,  Beza,  Henry  VIII,  etc.,  who, 
in  a  certain  sense,  even  improved  on  his  work — is  not  at  all  to 
my  taste,  however  much  my  subject  should  require  it.  Let  them 
pass.  They,  are  too  well  known.  Who  that  has  any  idea  of  the 
religion  of  Christ  could  think  of  them  in  connection  with  an 
apostleship?  I  shall  only  say,  then,  and  have  done  with  this  point 
when  I  do  so,  that  whoever  reads  the  history  of  Protestantism  in 
Germany,  Switzerland,  France,  Holland,  Denmark,  Sweden,  England, 
iScotland,  throughout  Northern  Europe,  calmly,  critically,  honestly, 
at  the  best  sources  of  information,  will  find  that  virtue  and  in- 
telligence had  nothing  to  do  with  its  production;  that  pride  and 
lust  and  rapine  rocked  its  ci'adle ;  that  persecution,  plunder,  conlSs- 
cation,  violence,  sacrilege,  tlie  horrid  desecration  of  everything  sacred, 
tracked  its  blighting  course  and  chiefly  fostered  its  rank,  rapid,  but 
short-lived    progress. 

Have  the  sects,  as  they  swarm,  any  earthly  resemblance  to  the 
Body  of  Ciirist  as  described  by  St.  Paul?  Have  their  teachings, 
like  the  tongues  around  Babel,  any  resemblance  whatever  to  the 
utterings  of  the  Spirit  of  Truth?  Has  Protestantism  means  to  pro- 
duce holiness?  Has  it  a  holy  doctrine?  It  has  no  doctrine. 
It  has  only  conflicting,  contradictory  opinions,  and  even  these  are 
as  changeable  as  the  winds  or  the  fashions,  and  this,  not  by  acci- 
dent, but  as  the  result  of  its  boasted  principle,  private  judgment, 
which,  nevertheless,  it  takes  up  and  lays  down  according  to  circum- 
stances and  to  suit  its  convenience.  It  has  nothing  certain;  nothinjr 
that  can  beget  an  act  of  divine  faith  without  which  it  is  impossible 
to  please  God,  and  without  Avhich  there  can  be  neither  hope  nor 
charity  nor  any  other  virtue,  for  it  is  the  very  root  of  every  virtue 
in   tlie   soul. 

Justification  by  faith,  even  though  an  act  of  faith  on  Protestant 
principles,    is    impossible;    that    is,  no    matter    what   a   man   does   if 


238  SERMONS  OF  TJIE  THIRB  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

lie  believes  he  is  justified.  Good  works  are  not  necessary.  The- 
grossest  sins  do  not  hurt  the  elect.  God  is  the  author  of  sin, 
and  at  the  same  time  the  avenger  of  it.  Once  in  grace  one  is 
always  in  grace,  how  grievous  soever  the  sins  he  may  commit. 
There  is  no  free  will  in  man ;  God  sees  no  sin  in  believers ;  no 
sin,  unbelief  excepted,  can  cause  damnation.  These  are  samples  of 
the  teachings  of  Protestantism.  Are  these  teachings  holy?  Do 
they  lead  to  holiness ;  or  rather,  do  they  not  remove  every  check 
that  God  has  put  to  the  grovelling  propensities  of  a  fallen  nature? 
Do  they  not  remove  every  restraint,  awaken  every  passion,  arouse 
and  excite  every  vicious  inclination,  whet  their  appetite  for  indul- 
gence, since  their  gratification  has  no  influence  whatever,  unless  it 
be    a    favorable    one,  on    man's    eternal    destiny? 

I  know  that  all  these  propositions  are  not  now  held  by  Protest? 
ants.  I  suppose  they  never  were  by  any  one  sect.  I  am  sure  that 
many  of  them,  I  hope  most  of  them,  reject  and  reprobate  them  from 
their  hearts ;  but  Protestantism,  of  which  I  am  speaking,  has  held 
them  and  taught  them,  and  is  responsible  for  them.  They  hold, 
however,  the  principle  that  gave  them  birth,  private  judgment  in 
opposition  to  divine  authority,  the  mother  of  the  sects  and  the  isms 
and  all  their  progeny  yet  to  come,  the  principle  that  has  unsettled 
the  human  mind,  severed  it  from  God,  shut  out  from  it  the  light 
of  heaven,  and  made  it  in  matters  of  religion  the  sport  of  every 
whim.  They  hold  the  principle  that  has  blighted  the  human  heart, 
dried  up  the  springs  that  would  irrigate  and  enrich  it,  sapped  the 
foundation  of  the  social  edifice  by  desecrating  the  great  sacrament  of 
marriage  and  undoing  its  tie  in  the  face  of  God's  prohibition,  broken 
up  families  and  scattered  them  to  tLe  four  winds  of  heaven,  de- 
stroying in  them  charity  and  creating  for  them  misery.  This  is 
the  principle  that  has  brought  man  down  from  his  high  estate  in 
the  supernatural  order,  where  the  light  of  heaven  was  around  him 
and  in  him,  where  the  bread  of  life  was  on  his  tongue  and  the 
blood  of  the  Lamb  on  his  soul,  making  it  fair  as  the  angels, 
where  heaven  was  his  home  and  God  his  Father  and  the  saints 
his  friends  and  brethren — down  to  that  depth  of  darkness  and  desti- 
tution in  v,'hich,  blind  to  the  future,  seeing  nothing  to  live  for 
beyond  time,  all  his  energies  seem  absorbed  in  the  pursuit  of 
wealth  and  pleasure,  as  if  in  them,  and  in  them  only,  human  hap- 
piness, whatever    there   is    of  it,   is  to    be    found. 


Till:]  SANCTITY  OF  THE  CHURCH.  239 

It  is  at  the  root  of  the  evils  that  darken  our  day  and  infect  our 
atmosphere,  that  fester  in  the  social  body,  waste  it  like  a  cancer  and 
make  it  loatlisome  and  offensive,  growing  evils  which  good  men  see 
and  deplore,  but  Avhich  they  try  in  vain  to  remedy  from  their 
unfortunate    standpoint. 

Protestantism  has  no  sacraments  or  channels  of  grace.  The 
Lord's  Supper  is  not  one,  and  as  to  baptism,  their  claim  to  it  is 
no  better  than  would  be  that  of  a  literary  club,  since  any  man 
or  woman    may   administer    it. 

Is  it  fruitful  ?  It  has  never  made  any  heathen  nation,  or  any 
notable  part  of  one.  Christian.  It  never  thought  of  attempting  such 
a  thing  before  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century.  On  the 
result  of  its  efforts  since,  read  Marshall's  "  Christian  Missions,"  the 
most  exhaustive  work  ever  written  on  the  subject,  and  you  will 
find  on  the  testimony  of  Protestant  Avriters,  eye-witnesses  of  what 
they  relate,  that  it  has  only  made  the  heathen  worse  and  Chris- 
tianity a  laughing  stock.  Though  some  missionaries  were  good  men, 
learned,  eloquent  and  earnest,  though  all  the  elements  of  success 
that  men  could  give  them  were  placed  at  their  service,  though 
they  had  Bibles  by  the  shipload  and  money  by  the  million,  and 
all  the  influence  that  social  position  and  the  prestige  of  a  dominant 
race  could  give  them,  yet  was  there  a  blight  on  their  work  and 
death  in  the  atmosphere  they  breathed.  Distributing  Bibles,  bribing 
the  heathen,  perverting  Catholics,  manufacturing  false  reports  for 
home  societies  in  view  of  further  aid,  keeping  out  of  the  way  of 
danger,  living  genteely,  watching  for  an  opportunity  to  better  his 
fortune  is  a  mild  presentment  of  the  ordinary  occupation  of  the 
average    Protestant   missionary   in    pagan   lands. 

As  to  miracles,  they  only  laugh  at  them,  as  if  it  were  ridicu- 
lous to  connect  them  with  the  Body  of  Christ,  or  absurd  to  at- 
tribute to  it  or  Him  such  power.  They  scoff  at  them,  they  reject 
them — not  because  they  are  unsustained  by  evidence,  but  in  the 
face  of  the  strongest,  most  varied,  irrefragable  testimony,  ever  ad- 
duced in  a  human  court;  they  reject  them  for  the  sole  reason,  as 
Middleton  ingeniously  confesses,  that  if  they  admit  the  testimony 
they  must  accept  the  facts  and  with  them  the  institution  they  so 
luminously  illustrate.  Originating  in  insubordination  to  the  estab- 
lished and  recognized  authority  of  God,  without  doctrine,  or  sacra- 
ments,  without   men   or   means    to   make    anyone    or   anything   holy. 


240  SERMONS  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

without  divine  faith  or  the  virtues  tliat  spring  from  it,  or  any 
element  of  the  supernatural  life,  without  the  blessing  of  God  or 
any  testimony  of  His  favor.  Protestantism,  as  a  religion,  is  a  bar- 
ren fig-tree;  it  bears  no  fruit  of  life,  it  never  will  bear  any.  It 
is  to  the  sanctity  of  tlie  Church  of  God  what  a  pale,  cold  corpse 
is  to  the  fire,  and  flush,  and  healthy  glow  of  manhood's  blooming 
prime. 

Does  the  Catholic  Church  bear  the  mark  of  sanctity?  She  is 
a  society  that  goes  back  to  the  days  of  Christ.  Her  history  com- 
mences with  the  acts  of  the  Apostles.  Look  at  her  to-day.  Her 
children  throughout  the  world  of  every  clime  and  color  number 
over  two  hundred  millions.  Divided  into  parishes  or  missions, 
they  are  governed  by  some  two  hundred  thousand  priests,  who  also 
teach  them  in  the  name  of  God  and  dispense  mysteries  to  them 
by  His  authority.  People  and  priests  divided  into  dioceses  or  dis- 
tricts are  governed  by  one  thousand  bishops.  All  are  governed 
by  the  Bishop  of  Rome.  They  have  tlie  same  faith,  and  sacrifice, 
and  sacraments  in  China  and  in  the  United  States,  in  Australia 
and  in  Italy.  Look  at  that  society  again,  view  it  closely,  search 
it  thoroughly,  examine  its  constitution,  its  doctrine,  its  practice.  Is 
it  not  one,  is  it  not  compact  and  closely  jointed?  Viewed  even 
from  a  human  standpoint,  do  you  know  any  government  that  can 
be  compared  with  it?  Well,  as  you  see  it  to-day,  such  it  has 
been  since  the  days  of  St.  Peter.  The  chain  of  rulers  that  binds 
Leo  XIII  to  Peter  in  this  great  society  is  as  real  anl  substantial 
and  visible  as  that  which  binds  Chester  Arthur  to  George  Wash- 
ington in  the  government  of  our  own  great  republic.  Throw  out 
the  ages  like  a  map,  unfold  the  scroll,  put  the  Pontiffs  between 
Leo  and  Peter  in  line,  two  hundred  and  fifty-eight  in  number,  and 
seven  or  eight  years  apart  on  an  average.  Around  each  of  these 
Pontiffs  sweep  a  circle  whose  circumference  will  reach  to  the  ends  of 
the  earth.  These  circles  will  intersect  and  grasp  and  bind  each  other 
fast  as  the  links  of  a  triple  chain.  Place  within  each  of  these 
circles  around  the  Sovereign  Pontiff  the  hundreds  of  bishops,  the  tens 
of  thousands  of  priests,  the  millions  of  every  tribe  and  tongue  and 
nation  that  in  his  day  he  governed.  Look  at  these  two  hundred 
and  fifty-eight  circles  that  have  Rome  as  centre  and  the  uttermost 
bounds  of  the  earth  as  circumference ;  look  at  the  bishops,  priests 
and    people    along    the   whole    line ;    listen    to    their    teaching,  pro- 


THE  SANCTITY  OF  TEE  CHURCH.  241 

ceeding  as  if  from  one  mouth ;  listen  to  their  act  of  faith  as  it 
sweeps  through  the  years  and  rings  through  the  earth ;  look  at 
their  ministrations,  their  dispensation  of  mysteries,  and  tell  me,  has 
the  world  ever  seen  a  government  or  a  society  such  as  that?  Is 
there  anything  in  all  history  to  be  even  remotely  compared  with 
it?  Now,  if  the  Father  and  Son  sent  the  Holy  Ghost  on  that 
glorious  Pentecost  Sunday,  eighteen  hundred  years  ago,  to  animate 
the  society  which  Christ  had  formed  to  be  its  soul,  its  internal 
teacher ;  to  distribute  gifts  and  work  therein  for  its  sanctification 
and  abide  with  it  forever,  as  Ave  are  taught  to  believe  through 
several  chapters  of  the  Gospel  of  St.  John ;  if  before  St.  Paul 
wrote  to  the  Romans,  Corinthians,  Ephesians  or  Collossians,  Jesus 
Christ  was  the  head  of  a  society  which  Avas  to  last  forever,  to 
which  He  Avas  bound  indissolubly  as  to  a  bride  by  a  mystic  mar- 
riage tie,  which  He  was  ever  to  love  and  cherish  as  His  own 
body,  bone  of  His  bones,  and  flesh  of  His  flesh;  if  this  be  so — and 
if  not,  you  may  fling  Gospels  and  Epistles,  and  even  the  facts  of 
history,  to  the  winds — if  this  be  so,  does  not  history  compel  you 
to  admit  that  such  a  society  is  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  for 
there  is  no  other ;  and  you  must  remember  that  the  society  in 
which  these  divine  persons  dwell  is  like  a  mountain  on  the  top 
of  the  hills,  like  a  city  on  the  mountain  top  lighted  up  from 
heaven,  brighter  than  the  moon  at  night  or  the  sun  in  his  noon- 
day splendor. 

The  history  of  heresies  confirms  this  fact.  They  have  tracked  the 
course  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  throughout  her  history.  With 
the  sword  of  the  spirit  she  cut  the  rebels  from  her  communion. 
Severed  from  her,  they  began  at  once  to  show  signs  of  decay,  of 
death,  of  corruption.  In  being  separated  from  her  they  were  evi- 
dently cut  oft"  from  the  living  Body  and  Christ  and  from  all  the 
fountains  of  supernatural  life.  From  that  day  forward  neither 
learning,  nor  eloquence,  nor  wealth,  nor  the  support  of  kings,  nor 
the  strength  of  armies,  nor  any  other  force  from  earth  or  beneath 
it,  could  galvanize  them  into  anything  like  a  semblance  of  the  holy 
Church  of  the  living  God.  In  spite  of  everything  that  man  could 
do  for  them,  there  they  lie  before  the  world's  gaze  like  sapless 
branches  or  amputated  limbs,  scattered  here  and  there  along  the 
higliways  of  history. 

Has   the   Roman    Catholic    Church    means    of  sanctification?     Has 

16 


242  SFEMO^^S  OF  TUB  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

she  a  holy  doctrine  and  holy  institutions  ?  I  cannot  examine  these 
points  in  detail  now.  I  shall  only  say  that  they  are  to-day  and 
always  have  been  such  as  they  came  from  the  lips  of  the  divine 
Founder  of  the  Church.  The  Catholic  Church  claims  infallibility. 
Surely  the  body  of  Christ  and  the  temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost  ought 
to  be  infallible.  The  Catholic  Church  not  only  claims  infallibility 
but  proves  the  justice  of  her  claim,  and  with  her  history  of 
nineteen  centuries  before  the  world,  she  boldy,  confidently  defies  the 
lights  of  this,  as  of  every  other  age,  to  name  -a  single  doctine  that 
she  has  ever  changed  one  iota,  the  time  and  place  and  circumstances 
and  history  of  the  change,  to  name  a  doctrine  of  the  past  that  she 
does  not  teach  still,  or  any  doctrine  of  the  present  time  that  she  did 
not  teach  in  all  the  past,  every  day  during  the  centuries  of  her 
existence,  explicitly  or  implicitly.  The  endowment  of  infallibility 
is  the  equivalent  of  sanctity  in  the  matter  of  doctrine.  To  say  that 
the  Church  is  infallible  and  to  prove  it,  is  to  prove  that  her  doc- 
trine is  the  primitive  teaching  in  all  its  details,  and  therefore  as 
holy  as  when  it  came  from  the  lips  of  God  as  a  means  of  sancti- 
fication. 

Has  her  mission  been  fruitful  ?  She  had  converted  all  Europe 
before  the  birth  of  Protestanism,  and  her  labors  since  in  every 
pagan  land,  in  China,  in  India,  in  Japan,  in  Africa,  have  encountered 
no  such  obstacle  as  the  scandal  given  by  the  sects  which,  by  their 
numbers  and  contradictions,  made  the  heathen  think  that  Christianity 
had  more  Christs  than  paganism  had  gods. 

As  to  her  miracles  throughout  her  long,  long  history,  they  are 
like  the  stars  in  the  heavens,  as  countless  and  as  brilliant. 

Has  she  had  always  holy  members  ?  The  myriads  of  martyrs 
of  the  early  ages  of  every  age  and  sex  and  condition,  who,  in 
the  coliseum  or  other  amphitheatres  of  the  Roman  empire,  sur- 
rounded by  every  instrument  of  torture  that  human  barbarity  could 
employ,  face  to  face  with  death  under  his  most  terrific  aspect,, 
dared,  in  the  very  teeth  of  tyranny,  as  they  writhed  in  agony^ 
to  profess  Christ  and  Him  crucified,  were,  whether  bishops,  priests 
or  people,  members  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church.  So  were  the 
anchorites,  these  holy  men  of  old,  who,  fleeing  from  the  corrup- 
tion of  the  great  cities,  retired  to  the  desert  that  they  might  be 
more  with  God,  who,  in  an  age  of  sensuality,  lived  as  if  they 
were    out   of    the   body,    and   who,    by   prayer,    meditation,    study   of 


THE  SANCTITY  OF   THE  CHURCH.  243 

the  Sacred  Scriptures  and  conferences  after  sun-down,  while  they 
were  still  fasting,  did  more  jjerhaps  to  counteract  the  evil  influ- 
ences of  the  fldse  teaching  and  bad  principles  of  the  Eastern 
schools  than  any  other  body  of  men  then  living.  The  names  of 
the  Popes  for  eight  hundred  years,  with  three  or  four  excep- 
tions, emblazon  the  ^  catalogue  of  the  saints  of  God.  The  apos- 
tles of  the  nations  and  the  missionaries  who  accompanied  them, 
who,  by  their  indomitable  zeal  and  heroic  virtue,  extended  the 
stakes  and  multiplied  the  tents  of  the  Christian  conquest,  were 
bishops  and  priests  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church.  The  sixty 
tomes  of  the  lives  of  the  saints  by  the  Bollandists  give  us  but 
a  mere  fraction  of  the  multitudes  of  her  sainted  children.  The 
Benedictines,  the  Augustinians,  the  Trappists,  the  Dominicans, 
the  Franciscans,  the  Jesuits,  the  Redemptorists,  all  the  orders 
and  communities  of  religious  men  and  women  scattered  all  over 
the  ages  and  the  nations,  who  have  consecrated  their  lives  on 
the  altar  of  religion  to  the  service  of  God  and  their  neighbor 
by  the  holy  vows  of  poverty,  chastity  and  obedience,  who  cannot 
call  anything  on  this  earth  their  own,  who  have  stripped  themselves 
of  everything  to  give  no  hold  to  the  enemy,  who  have  lived  the  whole 
Gospel,  the  counsels  as  well  as  the  precepts,  in  their  efibrt  to  be 
perfect  as  their  Father  in  heaven  is  perfect — these  angels  in  the 
flesh,  these  holocausts  of  charity  are  not  only  Catholics,  the  pride 
and  flower,  and  crown,  and  glory  of  the  Catholic  Church,  but 
they  are  the  precious  stones  spoken  of  by  the  prophet — the  jas- 
per, the  sapphire,  the  emerald,  the  topaz,  the  beryl,  the  amethyst, 
that   blaze  in    beauty   in   the  golden   vesture  of  the  bride   of  Christ. 

The  widow,  the  orphan,  the  blind,  the  lame,  the  deaf,  the 
dumb,  the  victims  of  yellow  fever  and  cholera  deserted  by  their 
nearest  friends,  the  dying  soldier  on  battle's  bloody  field  nursed 
and  comforted  by  the  Sister  of  Mercy  or  Sister  of  Charity,  all 
the  children  of  misfortune  lift  their  eyes  and  hearts  to  heaven 
invoking  blessings  on  the  sons  and  daughters  of  the  Catholic  Church 
for    their    godlike    charity. 

The  Catholic  Church  is  now  and  ever  has  been  the  altar  of  every 
sacrifice,  the  home  of  every  charity,  the  asylum  of  every  misery, 
for  she  is  the  body  of  Him  Avho  died  to  save  us,  who  is  still 
our  Sacrifice,  our  Priest  and  Victim.  Of  all  the  societies  ever  seen 
on   this    earth,   she    alone   can    say  with   her   divine    Founder   to  her 


244  SEE3I0NS   OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

enemies:  "Who  can  convict  me  of  sin?  If  I  had  not  done  among 
them  works  that  no  other  society  hath  done,  they  would  not  have 
sin.  They  hated  me  without  cause."  And  pointing  to  her  teach- 
ing, to  her  sacrifice,  to  her  sacraments,  to  her  altars,  to  her  pulpits, 
to  her  confessionals,  to  her  hospitals  and  asylums,  for  every  misery 
to  which  fallen  nature  is  heir,  she  can  say  to  all  who  doubt  or 
deny  her  mission  and  her  character  what  our  Lord  said  to  the 
vacillating  messengers  of  the  imprisoned  Baptist :  "  The  blind  see, 
the  lame  walk,  the  lepers  are  cleansed,  the  deaf  hear,  the  dead 
rise  again,  the  poor  have  the  Gospel  preached  to  them,  and  blessed 
is  he  that  shall  not  be  scandalized  in  Me."  Her  works  and  vir- 
tues proclaim  the  sanctity  and  make  manifest  the  divinity  of  the 
Catholic  Church,  and  the  voice  of  God  thundering  through  the 
ages  and  the  nations  in  the  unmistakable  language  of  signs  and 
wonders  confirms  with  the  great  seal  of  heaven  the  incommunicable 
holiness    of  the    bride    of  Christ. 


%\lt  "fnl  i^i  If!^  4^«ndl. 


SEEMOI  OF  RIGHT  EEY.  J.  L.  SPlLDIXa,  D.D., 


EISHOP   OF    PEORIA. 


"I  believe  in  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  in  one,   holy,  Catholic  and  Apostolic  Church." 

AT  this  closing  session  of  the  largest  and  most  important  council 
of  Catholic  bis-hops  ever  held  in  America  it  is  altogether  befit- 
ting that  some  expression  be  given  to  the  thoughts  which  so  august 
an  assembly  suggests.  Even  a  casual  observer  can  hardly  fail  to  per- 
ceive in  this  venerable  body  something  of  the  marks  which  stamp 
the  Church  with  the  impress  of  God's  hand.  Here  are  men,  born 
in  many  lauds,  speaking  many  tongues,  and  bringing  with  them 
from  distant  parts  of  the  earth  the  thousand  varying  shades  of 
thought  and  sentiment,  which  spring  from  difference  of  climates, 
customs  and  laws.  They  show  forth  in  their  bearing  and  charac- 
ters the  action  of  the  forces  which  diversify  human  life  and  throw 
nations  and  individuals  into  rivalry  and  antagonism.  But  when 
they  meet  in  council  these  differences  and  oppositions  of  opinion 
and  feeling  are  merged  in  the  unity  of  faith;  and  the  harmony 
which  reigns  in  the  Universal  Cliurch,  in  spite  of  the  divergent  and 
conflicting  influences  that  work  in  its  members,  breathes  also  in  the 
deliberations  of  this  venerable  body,  and  moves  all  minds  and  hearts 
to  the  enactment  of  wise  aud  just  laws.  Thus  we  have  here  a 
type  of  the  Unity  and  of  the  Catholicity  of  the  Church.  At  the 
call  of  the  Vicar  of  Christ  this  council  has  assembled  under  the 
presidency  and  guidance  of  the  Apostolic  Delegate,  Avhose  authority 
IS  derived  from  Pope  Leo  XIII,  who  succeeds  through  Pius  IX, 
Gregory  XVI,  Leo  XII  and  a  line  of  Pontiffs,  stretching  through 
eighteen  centuries  to  Peter,  to  whom  Christ  said :  "  Thou  art  Peter, 
and  upon  this   rock   I    will   build  INIy  Church,  and   the  gates    of  hell 

(24-) 


246  SERMONS  OF  Tim  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

shall  not  prevail  against  it ; "  and  so  the  Apostolicity  of  the  Church  is 
visible  in  this  body,  which  professes  the  faith  first  delivered  to  the 
saints  and  proclaimed  at  Jerusalem,'  at  Nice  and  in  all  the  councils 
since  held  throughout  the  Catholic  Avorld,  and  handed  down  from 
Pope  to  Pope,  who  each  in  his  day  taught  the  whole  Church  in 
the  name  of  Him  wlio  said  to  Peter :  "  Feed  My  sheep,  feed 
My  lambs ; "  and  again :  ".  I  have  prayed  for  thee  that  thy  fliitli 
fail  not,  and  thou    once  converted,  confirm  thy  brethren." 

And  the  mark  of  holiness  too, — the  essential  mark  of  true  re- 
ligion— is  not  absent  from  this  reverend  body.  I  may  not  indeed 
speak  of  the  lives  of  the  venerable  men  who  are  here  assembled, 
of  the  sacrifices  they  have  made,  of  their  zeal,  their  trials  and 
labors;  of  the  generous  devotion  with  which  they  have  given  their 
whole  strength  to  the  service  of  their  fellow-men,  preaching  tbe 
Gospel  to  the  Indian  and  the  African  with  the  same  love  with 
which  they  announce  its  glad  tidings  to  those  who  are  bound  to 
them  by  ties  of  race  and  country.  But,  apart  from  this  let  me 
ask  what  motive  has  led  them  hither  from  distant  parts  of  this 
vast  continent,  from  the  towns  and  cities  of  this  great  and  pros- 
perous land?  To  this  question  I  can  find  but  one  answer: — the 
desire  to  work  with  God  in  uplifting  men  to  higher,  purer  and 
freer  life.  No  one  could  listen  to  their  long  and  earnest  discussions, 
or  witness  the  reverent  thought  and  patient  cure  with  which  they 
examined  each  subject  as  it  came  up  for  debate,  without  being 
convinced  of  the  truth  of  what  I  affirm.  The  various  subjects 
which  have  been  the  matter  of  our  deliberations  during  the  four 
weeks  of  the  council's  sittings,  liave  all  a  direct  bearing  upon  the 
welfare,  religious,  moral,  intellectual  and  social,  of  the  people  with 
whose  spiritual  care  we  are  charged,  and  therefore  upon  the  welfare 
and  prosperity  of  our  country  itself.  Our  sessions  have  been 
private,  but  the  only  secrecy  which  need  be  observed,  is  that 
necessary  to  the  free  and  untranicled  action  of  the  Sovereign  Pon- 
tiff to  whose  final  judgment  wliatever  we  have  done  must  be 
submitted.  Tlie  expression  of  opinion  upon  all  points  which  have 
come  up  for  discussion  has  been  full  and  frank;  no  restraint  has 
been  felt  or  exercised;  and  the  spirit  of  fairmindedness,  of  candor 
and  thoroughness  has  pervaded  all  our  deliberations.  In  tlie  spirit 
which  lived  in  the  councils  of  earlier  ages,  and  brought  to  the 
defence    and    protection    of    the    slave,    of    the    child,    of    the    poor 


THE  WORK  OF  THE  COUNCIL.  247 

and  of  woman,  the  moral  power  of  the  Christian  religion,  which 
led  the  way  to  representative  government  and  parliamentary  rule, 
the  American  bishops,  living  in  a  country  where  slavery  has  ceased 
to  exist,  where  the  child  is  held  in  reverence,  woman  in  honor, 
and  the  poor  are  cared  for,  have  turned  their  thoughts  to  the 
giving  of  new  impulses  to  the  forces  which  work  for  the  cause 
of  God  in  the  world,  which  is  also  the  cause  of  man.  And,  first 
of  all,  they  feel  that  what  is  most  necessary  to  individuals  and 
to  nations  is  the  strength  which  comes  of  true  religious  faith, 
by  which  we  are  held  in  living  and  loving  communion  with  the 
Author  of  our  being,  the  Source  of  life  and  truth  and  goodness. 
Such  faith  is  the  support  of  noble  aims  and  the  vital  principle 
of  worthy  deeds ;  it  is  the  safeguard  of  morals  and  the  best  in- 
centive to  efforts  to  improve  both  ourselves  and  the  society  in 
which  we  live ;  and  so  it  becomes  the  foundation  of  national  pros- 
perity. 

History  teaches  that  epochs  of  faith  are  epochs  of  progress, 
while  in  the  atmosphere  of  skepticism  the  intellects  and  consciences 
of  men  are  darkened  and  weakened,  and  the  way  to  general  decay 
is  prepared.  Hence  the  ^Fathers  of  the  Council  know  that  in  seek- 
ing to  create  an  intenser  and  more  living  faith  in  God  and  His 
Church,  they  are  laboring  not  only  to  fit  men  for  an  immortal 
and  God-like  destiny,  but  are  also  giving  necessary  aid  to  what- 
ever tends  to  make  the  earthly  life  of  man  more  worthy  and 
blessed.  And  since  the  Christian  religion,  like  all  religions  that 
have  left  a  deep  and  lasting  impress  upon  the  peoples  which  they 
have  influenced,  is  essentially  sacerdotal,  the  Fathers  of  this 
Council  have  turned  their  thoughts  first  of  all  to  the  priesthood 
itself,  and  by  the  enactment  of  laws  which  have  been  drawn  up 
and  discussed  with  the  greatest  care,  they  have  sought  to  regulate 
the  relations  of  bishops  and  of  priests,  and  priests  and  people,  in  a 
Avay  which  will  bring  about  more  perfect  harmony,  more  complete 
sympathy,  and  a  nearer  approach  to  the  ideal  upheld  by  the  Saviour 
when  He  said :  '  By  this  shall  men  know  that  you  are  My  disci- 
ples,   if  you 'love    one  another.' 

The  character  of  the  true  priest  demands  that  he  possess 
both  great  virtue  and  great  knowledge.  The  bishops,  therefore, 
have  labored  not  only  to  inspire  a  deeper  love  of  holiness,  a  more 
ardent   zeal  and   a   stricter   observance  of  the  ecclesiastical  discipline, 


248  SBBMOIfS  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

which  is  the  practical  expression  of  the  wisdom  of  the  saints  in 
many  hmds  and  many  ages,  but  they  have  also  given  most  serious- 
thought  and  consideration  to  plans  and  methods  whereby  the 
standard  of  priestly  education  may  be  raised.  They  have  not  been 
slow  to  give  exxression  to  their  conviction  that  only  the  best 
discipline  and  cultivation  of  mind  can  fit  the  priest  in  an  age  and 
country  like  our  own  to  be  the  accomplished  and  effective  teacher 
of  divine  truth.  They  have  adopted  measures  which  will  insure  a 
more  thorough  elementary  education  of  candidates  for  the  priesthood. 
They  have  lengthened  and  deepened  the  course  of  philosophy  and 
theology,  and  have  emphasized  the  importance  and  necessity  even  of 
literary  and  scientific  acquirements.  And  in  this  connection  they  have 
laid  the  foundation  of  what  they  believe  will  in  due  time  grow  to 
be  a  real  American  Catholic  University.  But  their  attention  has 
not  been  confined  to  sacerdotal  education.  Thoy  perceive  and  affirm 
the  fact  that  all  men  need  education,  but  they  hold  to  the  prin- 
ciple that  a  system  of  education  whicli  fails  to  recognize  that  re- 
ligion is  essential  both  to  right  thinking  and  right  living  is  neces- 
sarily defective.  Hence  they  have  sought  to  organize  and  perfect 
our  system  of  parochial  schools,  so  that-  our  children  may  there 
receive  not  only  proper  training  of  the  heart  and  conscience,  but 
may  also  enjoy  opportunities  for  the  improvement  of  the  mind 
equal  to  those  afforded  in  the  best  schools  of  the  country.  They 
have  also  insisted  that  it  is  the  urgent  duty  of  priests  and  people 
to    provide    Catholic    schools    for    Catholic    children. 

A  Catholic  congregation  without  a  Catholic  school  is  like  a 
family  without  a  mother.  The  formal  service  may  be  there,  but 
the  deep  heart  of  love  and  wisdom,  with  power  to  shape  and 
mold  character,  is  wanting;  and  in  due  time,  the  showy  temple  will 
become  only  a  monumental  mockery  standing  in  the  midst  of  an 
unbelieving  generation.  Man  is  a  religions  being,  and  a  system  of 
education  Avhich  excludes  the  teaching  of  religious  truth  and  morality, 
rests  upon  unsound  principles,  and  must  prove  hurtful  to  the 
strength  and    permanency    of  free    government. 

In  Europe,  who  are  the  advocates  of  secular  educatioli?  Are 
they  not  almost  without  exception  the  enemies  of  positive  religion? 
Bring  together  the  infidels  of  the  Avorld  of  every  shade  of  opinion, 
from  the  teachers  of  naked  atheism  and  materialism  to  the  pro- 
fessors   of  the   various    forms    of   deism,   and    you    will    find    that   in. 


THE  WORK  OF  THE  COUNCIL.  249 

the  midst  of  a  thousand  conflicting  and  contradictory  tenets  they 
all  agree  in  their  opposition  to  religious  education.  And  they,  and 
they  alone,  are  logical  in  taking  up  this  position.  Since  they  reject 
all  positive  religious  doctrines  as  superstitious  and  absurd,  they  are 
consistent  in    seeking  to    exclude  them    from    the    class-room. 

The  originators  of  the  public  school  system  of  this  country 
certainly  had  no  irreligious  intention,  and  the  purely  secular  char- 
acter of  this  system  is  the  result  of  circumstances  rather  than  of 
a  deliberate  purpose.  But  this  does  not  affect  the  necessary  ten- 
dency of  such  education  to  produce  religious  indifference,  and 
consequently  to  destroy  the  power  and  influence  of  religion :  and 
hence  whatever  may  be  the  intention  or  purpose  of  those  who 
maintain  this  system,  they  are  in  point  of  fact  the  most  effective 
allies  of  the  propagators  of  unbelief.  The  Fathers  of  the  Council 
are  not  opposed  to  universal  education,  or  to  free  education,  or 
to  taxation  for  the  support  of  schools,  or  to  methods  and  con- 
trivances of  whatever  kind,  by  which  knowledge  and  enlightenment 
may  be  diffused  through  the  masses  of  the  people :  but  tliey  are 
opposed,  necessarily  and  unalterably  opposed,  to  any  and  all  systems 
of  education  which  either  ignore  or  exclude  religious  knowledge, 
since  they  believe  and  hold  this  knowledge  to  be  the  primal  and 
most  essential  element  of  true  human  culture :  and  consequently  that 
it  should  form  the  basis  of  instruction  and  discipline  in  the  school 
as  in  the  family  and  in  the  Chureli.  The  v.ork  of  developing 
and  moulding  human  character  is  difficult  enough  when  these  three 
centres  of  influence  are  in  harmony  and  co-operate ;  but  to  throw 
them  into  antagonism  is  to  undermine  the  work  of  each ;  and  in 
a  society  where  this  state  of  things  exists,  the  Church  M'ill  lose 
its  sacredness,  tlie  family  its  authority,  and  the  school,  acting  upon 
the  intellectual  fliculties  alone,  will  but  serve  to  show  how  little 
and  helpless  man  is  when  his  life  is  not  breathed  upon  by  love 
and  .hope    and    faith    in    higher    things. 

The  Fathers  of  the  Council  have  not  been  unmindful  of  the  inti- 
mate relations  of  the  school  with  the  family,  or  of  their  duty  to 
watch  over  and  foster  that  first  and  more  sacred  school — the 
Christian  Home — which  springs  from  tlie  Sacrament  of  Matrimony, 
and  rests  upon  the  unity  and  indissolubility  of  marriage,  and  which 
consequently  is  the  out-growth  of  Catholic  teaching,  practice  and 
influence.     More  than   by   any   other   agency  the    characters    of    men 


'250  SERMONS  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

are  moulded  by  their  home-life.  When  this  is  religious,  pure  and 
sweet,  the  virtues  that  sanctify  and  adorn  life  blossom  like  the 
flowers  in  the  Avarm  and  gentle  air  of  spring,  but  when  the  tender 
bud  of  childhood  is  blighted  in  this,  its  earliest  sanctuary,  all  hope 
of  fragrant  bloom  and  ripe  fruit  is  lost.  The  relations  of  the 
Church  to  conjugal  and  domestic  society  are  essential  and  inti- 
mate ;  and  whenever  Catholics  are  permitted  to  lose  sight  of  this 
truth,  religious  zeal  and  practical  piety  decay.  "All  paternity,"  says 
St.  Paul,  "  in  heaven  and  on  earth,  derives  its  name  from  God :" 
and  hence  marriage,  in  its  essence,  its  ends  and  its  authority,  as 
well  as  from  the  fact  of  its  institution,  is  sacred  and  of  divine 
origin ;  and  in  the  religion  of  Christ,  it  is  also  a  Sacrament.  If 
the  presence  of  God  is  not  recognized  and  confessed  at  the  home 
fireside,  the  spirit  of  Christian  faith  and  filial  piety  dies  out  of  the 
family ;  and  irreverence  and  indifference  take  possession  of  the 
hearts  of  the  young.  Indeed,  if  the  family  be  suffered  to  lose  its 
religious  character,  it  were  folly  to  think  that  even  the  best  system 
of  Catholic  schools  can  prevent  the  decay  of  faith  and  the  ruin 
of  souls.  The  first  and  most  indispensable  school,  that  which  is 
the  basis  of  all  others,  which  lays  the  foundation  of  character, 
moulds  the  heart,  gives  to  the  mind  its  original  turn,  to  the  imagi- 
nation its  primal  and  ineffaceable  tinge,  is  the  family:  and  if  it 
is  secular,  or  pagan,  or  religiously  divided,  or  indifferent,  what  hope 
oan  there  be  of  saving  the  children  to  the  Church  and  to  God? 
We  hold  it  as  a  principle  that  he  who  wislies  to  enter  the  priest- 
hood should  try  himself  and  be  tried  through  a  long  course  of 
years,  lest  he  unworthily  or  rashly  assume  a  ministry  in  which 
he  shall  have  to  answer  for  the  souls  of  men,  redeemed  by  the  Blood 
of  Christ;  but  the  all-wise  and  all-just  Judge  will  not  first  or 
chiefly  hold  the  priest  accountable.  He  will  demand  the  soul  of 
the  child  first  of  all  from  the  father  and  the  mother,  through 
whom  it  was  brouglit  into  the  world.  When  we  look  around  us, 
it  is  difficult  to  believe  that  Catholics  realize  this  truth ;  so 
thoughtlessly,  so  frivolously,  do  tlicy  take  upon  themselves  the 
greatest  of  responsibilities.  Too  often,  like  unbelievers,  they  act, 
as  though  they  were  free,  in  this  matter,  to  follow  their  whims 
and  fancies  without  regard  to  the  divine  law  or  the  command- 
ments of  the  Church.  Their  present  passion  is  their  only  guide, 
and   in    many   instances,    a    life    of  misery  and   a    death    of  modified 


THE  WORK  OF  THE  COUNCIL.  251 

despair,  is  the  penalty.  Of  the  existence  of  this  evil  the  Fathers 
of  the  Council,  consider  that  there  is  no  more  lamentable  proof, 
than  the  custom,  for  such  it  has  grown  to  be  with  us,  of  inter- 
marrying with  those  who  have  no  faith  or  a  religion  different  from 
our  own.  Such  marriages  arc,  in  their  very  nature,  unchristian, 
and  have  in  all  ages  been  so  regarded  by  the  Church;  and  if  a 
sort  of  forced  consent  is  given,  it  is  as  a  mother,  who  despairs  of 
offering  effective  opposition,  consents  to  the  marriage  of  a  daughter 
with   one   who    she   knows    will   break   the   heart   of  her    child. 

How  can  people  who  disagree  concerning  interests  which  are 
eternal,  absolute,  of  infinite  moment,  and  nearest  to  the  most 
sensitive  and  central  nature  of  the  soul,  be  truly  united  in  any- 
thing? The  greatest  evil,  however,  in  this  marriage  of  people, 
who,  in  regard  to  their  soul's  faith,  stand  on  opposite  sides  of 
a  chasm  which  neither  is  likely  to  pass  over,  is  not  in  the  fact 
that,  in  such  marriage,  there  can  be  no  perfect  union  of  heart, 
Jio  complete  sympathy,  no  entire  revelation  of  each  to  each,  and 
consequently  not  that  peace  and  contentment  which  the  marriage 
union  should  bring;  but  it  is  found  in  this  other  fact,  that  in 
such  wedlock,  deep  religion  and  earnest  piety  are  almost  impossible, 
while  the  children  of  these  religiously  divided  families,  grow  up 
in  indifference,  and  sooner  or  later  fall  away  from  the  faith.  The 
bishops  of  the  Plenary  Council  therefore  call  upon  Catholics 
to  bear  ever  in  mind  that  marriage  is  a  holy  state ;  that  to 
be  good  it  should  be  consecrated  by  sacramental  grace ;  and 
since  it  is  permanent  and  durable  as  life,  it  should  be  entered 
into  with  serious  thought  and  reverent  intention.  Let  them  re- 
member that  fatherhood  and  motherhood  which  spring  from  this 
sacred  union,  are  a  kind  of  priesthood  which  imposes  upon  parents 
the  duty  of  constant  watchfulness  over  their  children  :  for,  to  quote 
the  words  of  the  great  Apostle :  "  If  any  one  have  not  care  of 
his  own,  especially  those  of  his  own  household,  he  has  denied 
the  faith  and  is  become  worse  than  an  infidel."  From  the  society 
of  the  family,  the  Fatliers  of  the  Council  have  gone  on  to  con- 
sider other  associations,  and  they  have  approved  and  encouraged 
all  societies,  which  based  upon  true  principles  of  faith  and  reason, 
have  for  their  object,  the  promotion  of  the  cause  of  religion  and 
morality,  the  protection  and  defence  of  the  weak  and  the  wronged, 
or    the    correction    of  abuses    which    are    harmful    to    the    growth   of 


252  SI:EMo^^s  of  the  third  plenary  council. 

the  Church,  and  to  the  permanence  of  free  and  just  government. 
In  an  especial  manner  liave  they  spoken  in  commendation  of  the 
Catholic  Temperance  Societies,  -which  are  laboring  with  zeal  and 
not  -without  good  results  to  diminish  the  evils  of  drunkenness  and 
to  lead  men  to  the  beauty,  dignity  and  freedom  of  a  sober  life. 
The  many  and  great  evils  -which  flow  from  the  vice  of  intem- 
perance are  not  unknown  to  any  of  us.  More  than  any  other, 
this  vice  disrupts  families,  makes  orphans,  digs  untimely  graves, 
breaks  mothers'  hearts,  takes  bread  from  hungry  mouths,  fills 
asylums,  peoples  prisons,  and  drives  its  unhappy  victims  along 
the  highway  which  leads  to  shame,  despair  and  the  loss  of  God. 
In  the  presence  of  all  this,  the  pastors  of  Christ's  flock  may  not 
be  silent.  Vae  mihi,  says  St.  Paul,  si  non  ^jredicavero.  It  is  hard 
to  understand  how  any  one  can  love  the  Church  and  not  be 
zealous  against  the  vice  of  drunkenness  :  for  though  there  are  other 
sins  which  doubtless  are  more  grievous,  there  is  none  which 
brings  so  much  obloquy  upon  our  holy  faith  or  which  so  much 
retard  its  progress  in  this  country. 

It  is  the  unfortunate  tendency  of  tliis  vice  to  parade  its  hideous 
features  before  the  public  gaze,  to  multiply  itself,  to  seek  evil 
company  and  to  combine  with  evil-doers ;  to  be  noisy  and  to  create 
disturbance,  to  advertise  itself  by  oaths,  blasphemies,  quarrels,  rows,^ 
assaults  and  murders.  It  enters  into  the  general  history  of  crime : 
and  its  loud  breath  rising  from  the  slums  and  purlieus  that  sur- 
round the  police  court,  is  perceptible  also  in  higher  circles,  throw- 
ing its  unmistakable  odor  over  the  daily  calendar  of  embezzlement, 
fraudulent  bankruptcy,  seduction  and  divorce.  And  in  this  con- 
nection, the  American  bishops,  with  a  deep  sense  of  the  intimate 
relations  of  free  government  with  morality,  have  urged  Catholics 
to  cultivate  the  spirit  of  obedience  to  the  laws  of  their  country,  and 
to  hold  in  reverence  those  who  are  clothed  with  civil  authority, 
which,  not  less  than  religious  authority,  comes  from  God.  Let  them 
set  their  faces  against  all  abuses  which  tend  to  deaden  the  public 
conscience  and  to  lower  the  standard  of  conduct.  Let  them  bear  in 
mind  that  the  faithfid  observance  of  the  Lord's  Day  is  not  only 
of  vital  importance  to  our  religious  life,  but  scarcely  of  less  im- 
portance  to  the  prosperity  of  our  country. 

The  bishops  have  also  approved  and  commended  certain  associa- 
tions  whose    object    is    to    protect    and    guide    the    immigrants    who> 


THE  WORK  OF  THE  COUNCIL.  253 

oome  in  such  multitudes  to  our  shores,  and  appeal  to  us  in  the 
name  of  Him  who  said :  "  I  was  a  stranger  and  you  took  Me 
in."  They  have  also  given  their  approval  to  societies  formed  for 
the  purpose  of  assisting  our  poor  people  who  are  huddled  to- 
gether in  the  squalid  quarters  of  great  cities  and  manufacturing 
towns,  to  get  homes  in  the  country,  where  bodily  life  is  healthier 
and  moral  life  is  purer.  But  since  associations  may  be  made  the 
instruments  of  evil  not  less  than  of  good,  the  Fathers  of  the 
Council  have  raised  their  voice  to  warn  Catholics  of  the  dangers 
of  societies  whose  object  is  immoral  or  unlawful,  or  whose  rules 
and  constitutions  are  not  framed  in  accordance  with  sound  Catho- 
lic   principles. 

So  enlightened  a  body  as  tliis  could  not  fail  to  recognize  the 
great  services  which  the  press  is  capable  of  rendering  to  the  cause 
of  religion :  and  hence  the  bishops  have  considered  the  means  by 
which  the  influence  and  circulation  of  Catholic  newspapers  may  be 
■extended.  A  few  good  journals  Mill  render  greater  help  than  a 
multitude  of  inferior  newspapers,  and  they  have  therefore  deter- 
mined that  each  ecclesiastical  province  shall  create  or  build  up 
some  one  Catholic  journal,  to  which  all  may  look  as  an  able  and 
enlightened  advocate  of  the  Church.  Careful  and  serious  attention 
has  also  been  given  to  the  claims  upon  our  Christian  sympathy 
and  help  of  the  colored  people  and  the  Indians.  They  are  our 
countrymen,  our  brethren,  redeemed  by  the  Blood  of  Christ,  and 
if  we  can  do  aught  to  soften  the  hardships  of  their  lot,  or  to 
lighten  the  weight  of  the  wrongs  by  which  they  have  so  long  been 
oppressed — above  all,  if  we  can  point  out  some  surer  way  to  a 
higher  and  better  world,  we  shall  thank  God  for  the  opportunity 
of  so    beneficent    and    holy   a    mission. 

Thus  have  I  briefly  and  lightly  touched  some  of  the  questions 
Avhich  have  engaged  the  thoughts  of  the  Fathers  of  this  tliird 
Plenary  Council-  of  Baltimore,  which  doubtless  will  mark  an  epoch 
in    the    history    of  the    Church    in    the    United    States. 

No  age  seems  Monderful  to  those  who  live  in  it ;  no  work 
seems  great  to  him  who  docs  it;  but  in  other  centuries  men  will 
look  back  not  Avithout  gratitude  to  what  has  been  accomplished  here. 
AVho  can  look  upon  the  uprising  of  the  Church  in  this  New  World 
without  comforting  thoughts,  without  a  sense  of  deeper  trust  and 
higher    courage  ?     As  from   amidst   sullen  waves  and  swollen  clouds, 


254  SERMONS  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

the  sun  breaks  forth  to  run  his  heavenly  course,  so,  from  the 
darkness,  as  of  the  grave,  in  Avhich  throughout  the  English  speak- 
ing Avorld,  the  Church  had  been  buried  for  centuries,  she  comes 
forth  again  all  luminous  and  young,  to  lead  anew,  in  tliis  other 
world,  the  life  which  for  two  thousand  years  has  been  the  foun- 
tainhcad  of  truth,  of  goodness,  of  peace  to  men.  Ah !  surely  there 
is  here  some  higher  vital  principle,  some  divine  source  of  energy, 
some  heavenly  guidance,  which  enables  the  Church  to  renew  her 
strength  and  to  walk  forever  young  amid  the  graves  and  ruins  of 
the  generations  that  die. 


lit    lite.  li.  Gilinu^n  .  D.jj. 


lit.  litv.  J.  J.  Vouroy,  D.O. 


te       't^B^^^^^Rl 

itgtt^ 

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L.                    rf ' 

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k  . 

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m      t 

/it.  litv.  h 

f.  J.  Jiic/Uer,  JJ.D. 

lit.  litv.  L.  De  Croesbriand,  D.l). 


lit.  liti.  Fiaiiri.-.  Moia,  l>  J). 


lit.  liev.  V.  11.  BorfjtS>:,  n.D. 


lit.  Her.  .his.iili   n:nft<f<-rs  Dl>. 


Jit.  litv>  Franciij  ti.  flmtanl,  h.ih 


^m  ^du>  |l«tmtt^$$  4  jlf^  ^mt 


SEEMOS  OF  RIGHT  REY.  F.  S.  CHITARD.  D.D. 


EISHOP  OF   YIKCEMKES. 


IN  the  ages  of  faith,  v/hen  men  fought  and  died  for  their  belief, 
shedding  around  their  race  a  supernatural  halo  from  noble 
and  brilliant  deeds  done  to  roll  back  the  flood  of  Mohammedan 
invasion,  and  rescue  from  desecration  the  holy  sepulchre  of  our 
Lord,  it  was  a  pious  custom  to  invoke  the  patronage  of  God's 
saints,  and  to  fight  under  the  inspiring  influence  of  their  names. 
The  gallant  hosts  of  France  invoked  St.  Denis;  the  chivalrous 
knights  of  Spain  called  upon  St.  James;  the  fleets  and  soldiers  of 
Venice  fought  under  the  banner  of  St.  Mark;  while  the  cry  of 
St.  George  for  England  animated  the  brave  warriors  of  the  Isle 
of  Saints.  It  was  a  wholesome  and  noble  idea,  besides  being  one 
intensely  Christian.  The  A^orld  has  changed  much  since  then.  The 
coins  of  some  once  truly  Catholic  peoples  still  are  found,  now  and 
then,  with  an  image,  or  an  inscription,  that  recalls  the  memory 
of  the  custom ;  but  it  is  not  the  fashion  now  for  nations  to 
stand  before  the  world  as  clients  of  any  saint.  How  could  this 
be  expected,  when  the  tendency  is  to  set  aside  the  God  of  sanctity 
Himself?  So,  far  from  invoking  the  saints,  the  world  of  to-day, 
if  it  do  no  more,  smiles  at  Avhat  it  calls  the  poetic  credulity  of 
the  past,  and  scoffs  at  any  attempt  to  revive  what  it  has  con- 
cluded to  look  upon  as  antiquated  and  superstitious.  It  is  not  my 
purpose,  dearly  beloved  friends,  to  demonstrate  at  length  the 
correctness  of  the  practice  of  our  forefathers  in  the  faith,  in  their 
veneration  of  the  saints  and  in  their  devotion  to  them.  But  I 
cannot,  in  passing,  withhold  saying  a  word  on  the  subject.  Consult 
the   records    of    the    human    race,    and    everywhere   you   will    find   a 

(255) 


256  SEBMONS  OF  TEE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

tendency  to  honor  heroes,  to  deify  them,  and  to  believe  in 
their  protection.  Call  it  what  you  will,  it  is  there,  and  an  evi- 
dence of  a  universal  inclination  of  the  human  mind ;  and  where 
such  universal  disposition  exists,  the  germ  of  it  comes  from  the 
Creator  of  nature  Himself.  It  rests  therefore  on  a  truth, — the 
truth  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  and  of  the  power  of  the 
good  with  God ;  and  this  truth  the  revealed  religion  of  Jesus 
Christ  has  vindicated  most  splendidly.  The  teaching,  therefore,  of 
revelation  came  to  direct  and  exalt  this  natural  tendency,  and 
render  it  a  most  powerful  and  beneficial  influence  in  the  social 
life  of  nations.  In  doing  this  God's  Church  had  to  battle  with 
the  inborn  superstition  of  the  human  race,  even  as  now;  a  super- 
stition which  has  its  reason  of  being  in  facts  that  convince  men 
of  the  existence  of  agencies  above  nature,  and  which  more  or  less 
always  shows  itself;  just  as  it  does  now  in  the  consultation  of 
departed  spirits,  and  in  seeking  from  creatures  of  another  order 
knowledge  and  power  men  cannot  otlierwise  have.  Witness  the 
result  in  the  number  of  unfortunate  occurrences,  of  mental  perver- 
sion, of  insanity,  and  of  death  even,  familiar  to  all  readers  of 
the  daily  press.  The  Church  of  God,  which  is  given  us  as  "  a 
light  in  a  dark  place,"  to  use  the  expressive  phrase  of  the  great 
Apostle  (II  Peter,  i,  19),  separates  the  truth  from  the  falsehood, 
the  fact  from  the  superstition.  She  points  to  the  passages  of  Holy 
Writ  where  the  intercessory  power  of  the  angels  is  affirmed ; 
where  holy  men  are  shown  "  to  pray  much  for  the  people "  (II 
Mace.,  XV,  14),  and  where  supernatural  aid  was  vouchsafed  the 
hosts  that  fought  for  the  true  God.  She  bids  us  look  to  those 
remains  of  antiquity  which  have  been  providentially  preserved,  to 
let  us  see  M'hat  was  the  belief  and  practice  of  those  centuries, 
which  even  the  most  violent  of  her  opponents  are  forced  to  ac- 
knowledge as  pare  in  foith.  In  the  subterranean  crypts  of  the 
Roman  Campagna  she  has  found  treasures  of  antiquity,  and  these 
demonstrate  tlie  honor  in  wliich  the  early  Christians  held  God's 
saints;  how  they  invoked  them — asked  their  help.  The  eloquent 
appeals  of  those  who  cliose  to  be  laid  to  rest  near  the  martyrs, 
as  we  read  them  on  their  tablets,  the  prayers  to  St.  Petronilla, 
to  Januarius,  and  to  others ;  the  prayers  of  flithers  and  mothers, 
of  brothers  and  of  sisters  to  their  dear  departed,  "because  they 
know    they    are     in    Christ,"    awaken    not     alone    the    sense    of    faith 


OUR  LADY,  PATRONESS  OF  THE  UNION.  257 

in  the  great  doctrine  of  the  Communion  of  Saints,  but  stir  the 
well-spring  in  the  heart  of  those  high  and  beautiful  feelings  of 
Christian  love,  which  ennoble  the  soul  and  raise  it  up  to  follow 
after    that    which    is    lofty,    holy,    ^id    sublime. 

Of  all  the  saints  in  whom  God  has  manifested  the  wonders  of 
His  power  and  of  His  grace,  no  one  Mill  deny  that  the  greatest 
is  she  whom  He  chose  to  be  the  Mother  of  His  divine  Son,  and 
adorned  with  all  the  beautiful  prerogatives  that  befit  her  un- 
speakably  exalted   dignity, — the  ever   Blessed   Virgin   Mary. 

It  is  a  signally  fortunate  circumstance  that  by  the  vuianimous 
•choice  of  the  bishops  of  the  sixth  Provincial  Council  of  the  Church 
in  the  United  States,  and  by  the  act  of  the  Sovereign  Pontiff,  Pius 
IX,  of  holy  memory,  she  M'as  named  to  bo  the  Patroness  of  the 
Church  of  the  United  States ;  and  I  think,  dearly  beloved  brethren, 
you  will  agree  with  me  when  you  will  have  heard  the  reasons  on 
which   I  base  the   assertion. 

In  the  first  place,  we  should  consider  what  is  meant  by  the 
custom  of  having  a  patron  for  a  nation,  a  church,  a  diocese,  or 
even  a  parish.  It  is  not  merely  to  have  a  name,  not  merely  to 
have  a  special  feast,  to  have  an  advocate  to  look  to  in  time  of 
need.  It  is  more  properly  to  have  a  bright  and  beautiful  ex- 
ample of  Christian  virtue ;  a  hero,  who,  though  in  all  like  unto 
■ourselves,  met  and  overcame  the  same  obstacles,  the  same  dangers, 
the  same  opposition  we  find  in  our  daily  life,  and  before  which 
we  so  often  fall.  The  life  of  every  saint  is  a  gift  God  makes  to 
the  world  to  draw  men  to  Him,  and  stimulate  them  to  ways  of 
virtue.  AVe  in  America,  being  young  as  a  people,  with  institutions 
not  perfect  certainly,  in  every  respect,  but  which  are  so  favorable 
to  the  development  of  the  best  qualities  of  men  in  every  position, 
where  human  nature,  under  healthy  influence  of  true  freedom,  is 
full  of  promise,  which  we  pray  may,  under  the  fostering  care  of 
-God  and  His  Church,  be  realfzed  in  its  budding  forth  and  bear- 
ing flowers  and  fruits  acceptable  to  God;  we,  I  say,  may  be 
pardoned  for  looking  on  ourselves  as  a  providential  people,  of  the 
foremost,  destined  to  show,  as  perhaps  none  other  has  done,  what 
Christian  civilization  and  Christian  liberty  can  do  with  man.  To 
effect  this,  however,  a  high  ideal  must  be  reached,  and  the  ideal 
'  of  the  highest  life  of  virtue  we  have  in  her  to  whom  we  are 
bid    direct    our    eyes    as    to  our    model    and  patroness — in    Mary  Im- 

17 


258      SBEMO^'^S  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

maculate,  Mother  of  God.  All  Christian  antiquity  unites,  dearly 
beloved  brethren,  in  extolling  her  as  the  perfect  realization  of  all 
beautiful  virtue.  An  old  work  of  the  Egyptian  or  Coptic  Chris- 
tians salutes  Mary  in  these  words,  than  which  nothing  can  more 
fully  speak  her  excellence :  "  H'ail  glory  of  the  angels !  Hail 
Thou !  chosen  above  the  hosts  of  heaven  and  of  earth,  above  every 
cherubim."  (Passaglia,  "  De  Immaculato  Conceptu,"  t.  Ill,  p.  1158.) 
An  old  Father  of  the  Church,  Petrus  Cellensis,  writes,  (Book 
ix,  Epistle  9) :  "  Every  privilege  is  to  be  granted  the  Blessed  Vir- 
gin which  it  is  not  proven  was  positively  and  efficaciously  denied 
her;  and  every  presumed  assertion  of  excellence  is  to  be  held 
as  good  unless  the  contrary  be  proven."  The  greatest  of  theolo- 
gians, known  as  the  Angelic  Doctor,  St.  Thomas  Aquinas,  approves 
this  rule,  and  in  his  work,  3  Sent.  dist.  2,  q.  1,  art.  1,  says : 
''  It  is  by  all  means  to  be  believed  that  every  gift  was  bestowed 
on  Mary  that  could  have  been  conferred."  Tlierefore,  we  can  never 
imagine  anything  too  good  or  too  holy  in  the  Immaculate  Virgin. 
Is  it  not  a  cause  for  congratulation  that  such  a  model  should  in 
a  special  way  be  placed  before  our  growing  people  to  make  them 
aim  at  something  of  the  perfection  we  see  in  Mary?  In  fact,  as 
man  comes  from  the  hand  of  God,  and  as  his  ultimate  perfec- 
tion consists  in  attaining  the  end  for  which  God  has  made  him, 
the  possession  of  truth  itself  and  of  the  sovereign  good,  which  is 
God,  it  follows  that  man's  highest  development  is  inseparably 
bound  up  with  his  advancement  in  moral  excellence.  The  proposi- 
tion is  self-evident.  For  moral  excellence  is  the  observance  of  the 
natural  law — the  law  of  conscience  which  recognizes  God  and  obeys 
His  precepts.  The  sanction  of  that  law  is  ignorance  and  the  slavery 
of  passion.  The  observance  of  it  brings  as  its  result  and  reward 
the  elevation  and  the  development  of  the  mind,  and  manly  self- 
control  Avhich  enables  us  to  coerce  any  inclination  hostile  to  the 
development  of  the  mind  and  to  the  rectitude  of  the  heart ;  while 
it  aids  us  to  select  and  use  those  means  which  are  adapted  ta 
the  attainment  of  an  intellectual  and  moral  perfection.  Even  the 
pagans  saw  this,  and  appreciated  it.  Seneca,  in  his  book  of  Con- 
troversies, recommends  to  studious  youth  a  moral  life,  and  goes 
on  to  say  that  there  is  nothing  so  fatal  to  intellects  as  luxury 
or  vice.  Cicero,  in  his  work  on  the  republic,  speaks  in  praise 
of    the    deeply-laid   foundation    of   modest    reserve    in    the    youthful 


OUR  LADY,  PATRONESS  OF  THE   UNION.  259 

heart.  Before  these,  the  great  Aristotle  developed  the  same  idea. 
(Caprara,  "  Dissertatio  ad  Legem  Codicis  do  Professoribus.")  These 
heathen  writers,  by  the  light  of  mere  natural  wisdom,  understood 
the  value  of  a  life  of  virtue  as  a  requisite  for  the  attainment  of 
the  culture  man  can  acquire.  It  is  with  tlio  greatest  reason  then, 
my  dear  friends,  that  we  should  hail  most  thankfully  the  presen- 
tation to  us,  as  a  national  patroness  and  model,  of  one  who  is  the 
glory  of  the  moral  order ;  for  in  imitating  her  we  do  that  which 
is  most  conducive  to  individual  progress  of  mind  and  heart ;  for 
that  progress  requires  as  a  condition  the  imitation  of  the  resplendent 
virtue    of   the    Immaculate  Virgin    Mary. 

But  not  only  to  the  individual  is  the  patronage  of  this  great 
type  of  moral  worth  useful ;  it  is  especially  so  to  our  people  in 
a  social  sense.  On  the  excellence  of  Avomanhood  undoubtedly  rests 
the  good  and  stability  of  society.  As  long  as„  the  woman  is  good 
just  so  long  will  morality  hold  its  sway  undisputed.  Let  woman 
become  corrupt,  and  the  social  fabric,  too,  becomes  rotten  to  the 
core.  For  it  is  on  woman  that  the  education  of  man  depends. 
The  lips  of  the  mother  are  the  first  to  teach  the  child  the  lessons 
that  are  to  guide  its  steps  in  life,  and  those  lessons  are  the  most 
deeply  impressed  on  a  man's  mind,  and  the  most  influential  in 
their  bearing  on  his  after  life.  Who  of  us  does  not  recall  with 
fond  affection,  and  filial  reverence,  the  admonitions  Ave  received 
from  her  Avhom  we  loved  to  address  with  the  beautiful  name 
of  mother?  Who  of  us  but  must  recall  the  many  times  her 
words  have  returned  to  chide  or  encourage  us  in  our  jour.ney 
through  life?  How  many  of  us  must  attribute  our  success  in  life 
to  the  wise  and  loving  counsels  we  had  from  her !  I  remem- 
ber reading  the  words  of  a  gifted  and  exemplary  Cardinal  of  the 
Holy  Church,  his  Eminence  the  Archbishop  of  Westminster,  spoken 
on  two  occasions  of  solemnity  at  an  interval  of  eight  or  ten  years. 
He  Avas  preaching  at  the  obsequies  of  tliose  tAvo  most  estimable  pre- 
lates— the  Right  Rev.  Dr.  Goss,  of  Liverpool,  and  the  Right  Rev. 
Dr.  Vaughn,  of  Plymouth.  He  aa^ovo  the  panegyric  of  their  virtue 
and  good  Avorks,  and  gaA'e  his  audience  the  source  Avhence  they 
came:     "It  Avas,"   he  exclaimed,  "because   he  had   a   good  mother!" 

Since    such    is    the    undoubted    and   acknoAvledged    influence    of    a 

mother    on    hej^   children,    the    paramount    importance    of    the    correct 

Immoral    training   of .  Avoman    cannot    be    exaggerated.      Any   influence 


260  SERMONS  OF  TUB  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

that  can  be  brought  to  further  so  desirable  an  end  is  a  great 
boon  to  society.  If  wq  needed  anything  to  convince  us  of  this  it 
■would  be  to  see  how  all  the  false  systems  of  Avorship  of  past  and 
present  times,  and  how  tlie  secret  societies  of  to-day  in  Europe, 
have  labored  and  do  labor  to  get  possession  of  the  female  mind, 
and  hold  up  as  a  model  to  the  young  some  one  of  Avhom  the 
doctrines    of   Christianity   cannot    approve. 

Simon  Magus  had  as  his  aid  in  disseminating  his  anti-Christian 
teaching  her  Avhom  he  styled  the  Wisdom  of  the  Divinity.  INIohammed 
degraded  woman  while  wielding  the  terrible  power  that  came  from 
her  degradation.  Luther  overthrew  the  beautiful  type  of  the  Chris- 
tion  virgin  and  gave  his  following  as  a,  model  an  apostate  nun, 
whom  he  chose  as  his  companion.  Henry  VIII,  like  him,  trod 
under  foot  every  precept  of  the  inspired  Word,  and  by  his  licen- 
tious example  destroyed  the  veneration  in  which  holy  purity  liad 
been  held  in  England.  Heresy  and  treason  to  God's  Church  thus 
show  an  instinctive  horror  of  holy  virginity,  and  too  often  set  up 
idols  ©f  abomination  for  the  worship  of  youth  with  the  most  fotal 
result  to  society.  And  the  reason  of  this  is,  that  as  only  the  grace 
of  God  can  make  man  curb  his  strong  passions,  go  the  act  of  cast- 
ing oiF  relations  witli  God's  Church,  the  only  source  .of  grace, 
loosens  the  reins  of  those  passions,  and  man  is  carried  on  irre- 
sistibly   to    spiritual    destruction. 

How  diiferent  and  consoling  the  effect  of  holding  to  that  faith 
once  delivered  to  the  saints!  And  how  the  heart  warms  with  grati- 
tude to  God  that  He  should  have  given  us  the  fruit  of  His  work  in 
the  world,  the  spotless  example  of  Mary,  to  teach  us  how  to  live, 
and  so  correct  the  evil  tendency  of  corrupt  nature !  The  Church 
presents  us  in  her  the  type  of  the  maiden  pure  and  undefiled ;  of 
the  spouse  faithful,  humble  and  obedient ;  of  the  mother  loving, 
solicitous,  strong  and  full  of  sublime  virtue.  Oh,  how  this  day  of 
ours  needs  the  teaching  of  this  varied  and  exhaustive  example, 
suiting  every  condition  of  womanhood!  What  a  blessing  to  our 
young  Christian  maidens  that  tliey  should  have  their  eyes  directed 
always  to  that  greatest  of  creatures,  INIary  Immaculate.  What  a 
benefactress  to  our  whole  people  does  not  the  Church  show  herself 
to  be  in  insisting  on  the  development  of  that  education  which 
places  Mary  in  the  school-room  as  the  guardian  of*  innocence  and 
as   the   model   of    life.     How   the   perfumes    of  Mary's    virtue  linger^ 


OUR  LADY,  PATRONESS  OF  THE  UNION.  261 

in  the  memory  of  the  Catholic  chi'ld  on  wliom,  in  her  studies,  the 
loving  eyes  of  her  Blessed  Mother  looked  down  from  the  picture 
on  the  wall,  rude  it  may  be,  \n\t  like  a  pre-Raphaelite,  though 
inexact  in  detail,  possessing  a  soul  that  spoke  to  hers.  The  life 
of  Mary  enters  in  this  manner  into  every  circumstance  of  woman's 
daily  life.  As  a  child,  she  teaches  by  her  example  obedienee,  in- 
dustry, prayer ;  as  a  maiden,  modesty,  purity,  humility ;  as  a  wife, 
obedience  to  her  husband,  patience,  attention  to  the  duties  of  her 
household  and  of  hospitality ;  as  a  mother  we  see  in  her  every 
virtue  that  makes  a  mother  worthy  of  admiration,  for  she  devotes 
herself  without  reserve  to  the  welfare  of  her  Offspring,  suffering 
every  hardship  for  His  sake,  and  even  shares  in  His  ignominy  as 
He  hangs  on  a  gibbet.  Let  Christian  mothers  learn  from  her  to 
love  their  children  and  not  seek  to  avoid  the  cares  of  motherhood, 
or  throw  their  burden  of  duty  on  strangers.  Let  them  recognize 
that  theirs  is  a  most  sacred  obligation  to  watch  over  the  budding 
mind  of  the  child,  to  see  that  in  its  soul  no  seeds  of  evil  shall 
fall  and  no  weed  of  vice  spring  up  through  her  carelessness.  For 
no  one  so  represents  the  authority  and  the  love  of  God  for  His 
creature  as  a  mother  to  Avhom  God  has  given  that  love  of  her 
child  in  order  that  she  may  preserve  it  for  Himself.  No  Rachel 
mourns  her  lost  ones  as  the  Heart  of  God  weeps  over  the  child 
that  has  strayed  away,  and  of  a  mother  will  He  dem^id  a  strict 
account. 

But  useful  as  is  the  influence  of  Mary's  virtues,  on  the  individual 
and  on  society,  there  is  a  greater  benefit  still,  which  flows 
from  the  patronage  of  Mary  under  the  title  of  Immaculate  Con- 
ception. The  will  is  a  blind  power  and  is  directed  by  the  mind. 
It  is  the  will  which  is  engaged  in  the  practice  of  that  virtue 
which  makes  life  happy  and  beautiful.  The  office  of  tlie  mind  is 
to  recognize  first  what  virtue  is,  in  what  its  beauty  consists,  and 
why  the  will  should  love  it  and  go  after  it.  Everything,  there- 
fore, depends  on  the  mind,  on  its  synderesis,  on  the  principles 
that  bind  it  and  compel  it  to  conclude  what  is  to  be  done  prac- 
tically ;  and  that  conscience  is  to  be  followed.  Now,  what  is  so 
powerful  in  this  as  the  principle  of  faith  ?  And  what  is  so  es- 
sential to  the  very  idea  of  faith  as  the  supernatural?  Acceptance, 
therefore,  of  the  existence  of  the  supernatural  is  an  essential  con- 
dition   of    faith.      In    believing    in    the    Immaculate    Conception    of 


262  iSEHMONS  OF  THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

Mary  we  profess  ia  the  most  'solemn  and  eifective  manner  our 
acceptance  of  this  supernatural  order.  What,  in  fact,  is  the  doctrine 
of  the  Immaculate  Conception  if  not  a  reiteration  of  the  doctrine 
of  St.  Paul,  that  we  have  all  sinned  in  Adam,  as  the  exceptian 
in  her  case  but  confirms  the  rule  ?  She  alone  of  all  men  was 
preserved  from  original  sin  through  the  merits  of  her  divine  Son. 
And,  therefore,  as  we  proclaim  Mary  immaculate.  Me  hold  her  up 
to  a  material  world  as  a  type  of  the  supernatural.  The  great 
want  of  the  day  is  the  belief  in  the  supernatural.  Men  are  en- 
gulfed in  matter,  they  wish  to  think  of  nothing  save  what  tends 
to  the  pleasure  and  prosperity  of  life,  and  the  writers  whose  works 
are  most  read  are  they  whose  opinions  are  most  grossly  positivist 
and  material.  Men  of  the  liighest  position,  on  whom  rests  the 
responsibility  of  leading  society,  have  been  known  to  declare,  in 
the  midst  of  a  people  claiming  to  be  Christian,  that  all  men  are 
born  good.  There  arc  days  when  the  most  obscuring  and  fatal 
forms  of  Pelagianism,  so  valiantly  opposed  by  the  greai  African 
Doctor,  St.  Augustine,  and  so  triumphantly  dispelled  by  the  rays 
of  the  sun  of  truth  shining  through  the  decisions  of  tlie  councils 
of  the  Church,  find  favor  with  the  people  everywhere  and  destroy 
utterly  all  hope  of  spiritual  life.  To  meet  and  overcome  this 
hurtful  and  lethargic  error  that  like  an  Upas  trej3  is  blighting 
the  higher ^ife  of  our  people,  whose  teachers  continually  show  that 
the  idea  of  the  supernatural  is  obliterated  from  their  minds,  the 
Church  of  God  has  recourse  to  her  of  whom  we  sing :  "  Thou, 
alone,  hast  destroyed  all  heresies  throughout  the  whole  world." 
Once  more  the  words  are  verified,  and  her  privilege  convicts  the 
world   of  heresy   and    of  unbelief. 

Permit  me,  my  dear  friends,  briefly  to  place  before  you  what 
is  involved  in  the  doctrine  of  the  Immaculate  Conception  of 
Mfny,  that  you  may  the  better  appreciate  the  unspeakable  benefits 
that  flow  from  it,  and  more  directly  to  us  Avho  are  under  the 
sweet  influence  of  its  protection.  The  «world  was  astounded  when, 
in  1854,  on  the  8th  day  of  December,  that  great  Pontiff  of  holy 
memory,  Pius  IX,  gave  to  the  Church  his  dogmatic  definition,  to 
the  glory  of  the  Mother  of  God  and  to  the  greater  exalting  of 
God's  power.  Most  men  did  not  understand  it,  and  with  blind 
prejudice  assailed  the  Pope  and  the  bishops  with  every  term  of 
hate   and   denunciation.     Others    did     understand    it,    and    in   propor- 


OUR  LADY,  PATRONESS   OF  THE   UNION.  263 

tion  to  their  leaning  to  the  current  theories  of  the  day,  attacked 
that  authority  which  dared  to  mark  their  favorite  ideas  with  the 
stigma  of  error  and  of  ignorance.  Good  reason  had  they  to  cry 
out,  for  the  doctrine  of  Immaculate  Conception  was  the  reassertion 
of  God's  empire  in  the  Morld,  of  the  havoc,  wrought  by  the 
spirit  of  evil  and  by  sin  in  mankind.  What  had  the  Sovereign 
Pontiff,  the  Doctor  of  the  Universal  Church,  said  ?  He  had  sol- 
emly  declared :  "  To  the  honor  of  the  Most  Holy  and  Undivided 
Trinity ;  to  the  ornament  and  glory  of  the  Virgin  JNIother  of  God ; 
to  the  exaltation  of  the  Catholic  faith,  and  to  the  increase  of  the 
Christian  religion,  that  the  doctrine  vv'hich  holds  the  Blessed  Vir- 
gin Mary,  in  the  very  first  instance  of  her  conception,  was  by  a 
singular  grace  and  privilege  of  Almighty  God,  in  view  of  the 
merits  of  Jesus  Ciu'ist,  the  lledeemer  of  the  human  race,  pre- 
served free  from  all  stain  of  original  sin,  has  been  revealed  by 
God,  and  is,  therefore,  to  be  firmly  and  perpetually  believed  by  all 
the  faithful." 

In  making  this  solemn  declaration  the  Pope  took  his  stand  ou 
the  tradition  of  the  Church  of  which  he  is  the  divinely  appointed 
judge,  and  relied  on  that  assistance,  vouchsafed  him  by  the  Holy 
Ghost,  in  virtue  of  the  prayer  of  Christ :  "  Rogavi  pro  te  ut 
non  deficiat  fides  tua,"  and  whom  God  sent  down  on  the  Apos- 
tles on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  "  the  Spirit  of  Truth,  who  was  to 
abide  with  them  forever"  (John  xiv,  17),  and  "bring  all  things  to  ,  * 
their    mind    whatsoever    He    liad    told    them "    (John    v,    26). 

In  casting  a  glance  over  the  writings  of  the  Fathers  and  the 
Liturgies  of  the  Church,  we  are  not  surprised  to  find  them  speak- 
ing in  the  terms  of  unlimited  admiration  of  the  holiness  of  the 
Mother  of  God,  especially  when  we  bear  in  mind  the  rule  of 
Petrus  Cellensis,  and  of  the  Angelic  Doctor,  of  which  I  spoke  a 
few  moments  ago :  "  It  is  by  all  means  to  be  believed  that 
every  gift  was  bestowed  on  Mary  that  could  have  been  conferred." 
The  Sovereign  Pontiff,  therefore,  had  no  difficulty  in  finding  innu- 
merable passages  that  show  the  belief  of  past  ages,  from  the 
beginning,  that  there  was  no  spot  or  stain  in  Mary ;  that  the  foe 
of  mankind  never  had  dominion  over  her.  Thri,  for  example,  if 
we  take  the  verse  of  the  XLIV  Psalm  :  "  The  Most  High  has 
sanctified  His  Own  Tabernacle" — words  which  apply  primarily  to 
Jerusalem,    then   prophetically   to   the    Church — we   find   these   words 


264  SUIiJUO^i'S  OF  TUB  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

used,  by  accommodation,  with  reference  to  the  Mother  of  God,  by 
many  Fathers.  Methodius,  speaking  of  Simon  and  Anna  (Passag- 
lia,  "  De  Immacuhito  Conceptu,"  t.  11,  p.  735),  says  of  Mary  : 
"  Thou  among  all  created  things,  visible  and  invisible,  far  beyond 
all,  shinest  with  honor.  Happy  the  root  of  Jesse,  and  blessed 
the  house  of  David  in  which  thou  didst  bud  forth.  God  is  in  the. 
thee  and  thou  shalt  not  bo  moved;  for  the  Most  High  hath  sancti- 
fied   His    Tabernacle." 

John,  Bishop  of  Eubea,  celebrating  the  Blessed  Virgin's  own 
conception,  says :  "  Sing,  exult,  and  praise !  Lo !  the  devil  is 
overcome,  who  had  reduced  our  nature  to  his  tyranny.  Behold  a 
throne  is  erected  on  earth  more  admirable  than  that  of  the  cheru- 
bim, of  which  it  is  Avritten :  God  is  in  the  midst  of  it,  and  it 
shall    not   be    moved." 

In  like  manner  writes  Germanus,  the  Bishop  of  Constantinople. 
St.  John  Damascene  calls  her  "  something  new  under  the  sun," 
and  others  apply  the  verse  to  Mary.  The  Greek  Church  also 
speaks,  in  its  turn,  of  Mary  as  the  tabernacle  of  the  Most  High, 
and  ends  with  the  exclamation :  "  O,  Lady  in  every  way  immacu- 
late !  " 

The  Jesuit  Fathers,  in  their  work  on  the  Immaculate  Concep- 
tion, the  direction  of  which  was  given  to  Professor  Passaglia,  one 
of  their  number,  thus  sum  up  the  words  of  the  Fathers  and  the 
testimonies    of  the    Greek    Church    quoted : 

"  The  Fathers  have  taught :  I.  That  when  Mary  was  conceived  a 
throne  was  prepared  more  admirable  than  that  of  the  cherubim.  II. 
That  Mary  first  existed  as  a  temple  built  by  the  spiritual  Solomon, 
and  as  a  city  aided  by  God  lest  it  should  be  taken.  III.  That 
she  came  as  something  new  iinder  the  sun,  as  the  miracle  of 
miracles,  as  abounding  with  grace,  wholly  beautiful  and  next  to 
God.  IV.  That  Mary,  not  created  other  than  as  Eve,  came  from 
the  very  hands  of  God.  V.  That  no  dishonor  attached  to  God 
from  the  creation  of  Mary,  because  she  was  brought  into  exist- 
ence as  a  Mork  pleasing  to  God.  VL  That  the  triumph  over 
Satan,  to  be  fully  achieved  by  Christ,  began  with  the  origin  and 
primodial    existence    of  Mary." 

The  Sovereign  Pontiff  moreover  had  the  support  of  the  public 
opinion  of  the  Church,  in  which  as  a  soul  the  Holy  Ghost  dwells, 
making   all    of    one    mind,    and    that   public    opinion    was    in    accord- 


OTJR  LADY,  PATRONESS  OF  THE   UNION.  265 

ance  with  the  writings  and  testimony  of  learned  and  pious  Fathers. 
As  teacher  of  the  Church,  his  power  of  unerring,  authoritative  ex 
cathedra  decision  in  matters  of  controversy  has  been  gloriously 
vindicated  by  the  (Ecumenical  Council  of  the  Vatican,  and  it  is 
a  point  of  Catholic  faith  that  he  has  that  assistance  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  whereby  the   Church  is   infallible. 

But  this  regards  only  the  statement  of  the  doctrine ;  we  have 
to  do  with  the  effects  of  it — its  influence  on  the  world,  and 
especially  on  our  country,  of  which  Mary  Immaculate  is  the  Pa- 
troness. What  is  that  effect?  To  condemn  naturalism  and  to 
exalt  the  supernatural;  to  make  all  understand  the  absolute  neces- 
sity of  the   spiritual   life. 

Our  Most  Holy  Father,  Pope  Leo  XIII,  in  his  recent  Ency- 
clical has,  with  great  care  and  precision,  noted  the  existence  of 
naturalism,  its  characteristics  and  tendencies,  and  Avith  equal  firm- 
ness, and  with  inexorable,  logical  conclusion,  has  condemned  it.  It 
is  the  evil  of  the  day.  It  is  to  be  found  everywhere.  More  es- 
pecially is  it  to  be  encountered  where  education  is  most  advanced 
and  most  widespread.  It  has  enthroned  itself  in  the  great  uni- 
versities of  non-Catholic  countries,  as  the  legitimate  outcome  of 
so-called  free  thought.  I  say  so-called,  for  I  will  not  concede  the 
sacred  name  of  freedom  to  rebellion  against  God  and  against  reason; 
and  if  ever  there  has  been  rebellion  against  God  and  against 
reason,  it  Avas  when  the  principle  of  private  judgment  in  matters 
of  faith  was  asserted :  for  the  teachings  of  faith  came  from  God, 
and  reason  tells  us  to  accept  without  question  Avhat  wo  know  God 
reveals.  From  non-Catholic  universities  naturalism  has  spread  to 
Catholic  peoples  and  even  to  wliat  were  once  Catholic  universities, 
but  which  now,  under  the  influence  of  the  ideas  fostered  by 
European  Freemasonry,  the  great  teacher  and  propagator  of  natu- 
ralism, have  become  arch-professors  of  error ;  denying  the  existence 
of  the  supernatural,  and  consequently  of  grace.  From  the  uni- 
versities, naturalism  has  spread  to  the  press,  and  the  press  has 
popularized  it  nowhere  more  than  here  in  America,  till  you  can 
hardly  take  up  any  great  daily  without  finding  it  openly  taught, 
or  lurking  in  articles  Avritten  with  every  beauty  of  style,  and  on 
subjects  that  vividly  interest.  And  as  the  direct  consequence  of 
naturalism  is  to  destroy  the  idea  of  sin,  so  you  find  the  writers 
of  these  articles  speaking  with  light  raillery   of  sin,  and  insiduously 


266  SFE3I0NS  OF  TUB  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL. 

undermining   the    ideas    most    essential    to    Christian    morality.     Es- 
pecially   is    this     the    case    with    regard    to    holy    purity ;    and    the 
result    is    that    not   only   do    young    persons    of    both    sexes    laugh    at 
the    assertion  that    impure    thought   is    sinful,    but   they    even   declare 
openly   that   the    most   shameful    vices   are    not    sins    at   alL     This    is 
a   very   terrible    state    of    thiugs ;    but    I    have    put    the     case ,  most 
temperately,   as    any    one    who    has    had    the    experience    that    even   I 
had,    must   say.     What    the    future    of    society    is    to    be   with   such 
ideas    gaining   ground,    it    makes    one    shudder    to    think   of.     AVhat 
is    the   remedy  ?     Where    is    the  counteracting  influence  ?     The    Cath- 
olic   faith    with     its    clear    definitions,    its     fearless     and     consistent 
preaching     of    the     supernatural     order,    and    especially    in     its    pre- 
senting   to     the     people    types     of    virtue    in    the     saints,    and     pre- 
eminently in    the    definition  of  the    Immaculate  Conception    of  Mary, 
which   not    only    epitomizes    the   teachings  of  the    supernatural    order, 
but   gives  us   a   type    of   moral    beauty   and    of    the    spiritual    life    of 
grace,    so    excellent,    that    the    human    intellect     is     not    adequate    to 
grasp   it.     The    Immaculate    Conception    epitomizes    the  teachings    of 
the    supernatural    order,    because  it  reaffirms  the  existence  of  original 
sin,    and    its    universal    incurrence,    the    Mother    of    God    being   the 
only    exception ;    it    reaffirms    the    necessity   of  justification,    and    that 
through    the    merits    of    Jesus    Christ   alone ;    and    as   a   consequence, 
it   reaffirms    the    existence    of    the    grace    of    God,    and   the    need    we 
all    have    of    it ;     finally,    it     reaffirms     all     the     teachings    of    St. 
Augustine    in    the    fourth    century,    and    of    the    second    Council    of 
Orange  in  the  sixth,  against   Pelagianism    and  Semi-Pelagianism ;    the 
former    of    which    denied    the    existence    of    grace,    and    the    latter 
attributed    the   beginnings    of  conversion    to    man,    contrary   to    what 
Christ    Himself  said :    "  No    man    can    come    to   ]Me  save    My   Father 
draw     him."     (John     vi.)     "  Without     ]\Ie     you     can     do     nothing." 
While    the    great    inspired    Apostle,    St.    Paul,    writes  :    "  What    hast 
thou   that   thou    hast    not    received ;   and    if    thou    hast    received   it, 
why    dost    thou    glory   as    if  thou    hadst    not    received   it?". 

That  the  doctrine  of  the  Immaculate  Conception  presents  us 
a  supernatural  type  of  moral  beauty,  of  spotless  purity,  and 
of  a  spiritual  life  of  grace,  does  not  need  demonstration  after  what 
I  have  said.  With  the  Church  we  can  speak  of  this  Immaculate 
Virgin  as  "  Candor  lucis  eternre  et  speculum  sine  macula,"  as 
the    reflected    "  brightness    of    eternal   light    and   the    mirror   without 


OUR  LADY,  PATRONESS  OF  THE  UNION.  267 

spot ! "  What  the  effect  on  the  mind  and  heart  of  such  a  perfect, 
brilliant  and  beautiful  model  ia,  you  and  I,  dearly  beloved  brethren, 
know.  Oh!  what  a  blessing  to  have  Mary  before  our  eyes,  the 
thought  of  her  holiness  in  our  minds,  the  perfume  of  her  virtues 
ever  drawing  us  on ;  "  in  odorem  unguentoruni  tuorum  currimus ; " 
so  that  we  run  in  the  ways  of  the  Lord  whither  that  delightful 
odor  leads  us !  Let  us  give  devout  thanks  to  God,  that  we  are 
•  especially  placed  under  her  protection.  May  that  protection  ever 
hover  over  this  beloved  country  of  ours ;  may  its  benign  influence 
ever  foster  in  it  everything  that  is  true,  everything  that  is  beau- 
tiful,  everything   that   is  holy  !     Amen. 


PASTORAL   LETTER 


Ti3:iK;X)  p'LEi^j^i^.ir  ooun^oiL 


OF   BALTIMORE. 


y.  Jitv.  Bonaventure  Frey,  O.M.Cap. 


Ven/  liev.  James  McGrath,  O.M.I. 


Veil/  Ker.  ]).  liueslng,  O.S.F. 


\eiij  Itti  .  .1.  Atijiitrjitr^e,  S.l'.M. 


Vev}/  liev.  Ihjaciiilli  Fpp^O.Jl.Vaii 


*»\A 


Jif.  liev.  F.  CoHiad,  0  S.IJ. 


in.  Rev.  A.  Edeltjiock,  O.S.B. 


)it.  Jiev.  F.  MundtviM\  O^S.B. 


lll^  JitV.  B.  ]\  iiiitmr,  0. 


PASTORAL   LETTER 


—  OF   THE 


IRGHBISHOPS  IHD   BISHOPS  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 


ASSEMBLED   IN   THE 


THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL  OF  BALTIMORE, 


TO  THE  CLERGY  AKD  LAITY  OF  THEIR  CHARGE. 


The  Archbishops  and  Bishops  of  the  United  States,  in  Third  Plenary 
Council  assembled,  to  their  clergy  and  faithful  people — "Grace  unto  you 
and  peace  from  God  our  Father,  and  from  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ." 

Venerable  Brethren  of  the  Clergy, 

Beloved  Children  of  the  Laity  : 

Full  eighteen  years  have  elapsed  since  our  ])re(lecessors  were  asserablcil 
in  Plenary  Council  to  promote  uniibrinity  of  discipline,  to  provide  for  the 
exigencies  of  the  day,  to  devif^e  new  means  for  the  maintenance  and  diffu- 
sion of  our  holy  religion,  which  should  be  adequate  to  the  great  increase 
of  the  Catholic  population.  In  the  interval,  the  })relates,  clergy  and 
faithful  have  been  taught  by  a  wholesome  experience  to  appreciate  the 
zeal,  piety  and  prudence  that  inspired  the  decrees  of  those  venerable 
Fathers  and  to  listen  with  cheerful  submission  to  their  authoritative  voice, 
whether  uttered  in  warning,  in  exhortation  or  positive  enactment.  And 
the  whole  American  Church   deeply  feels   and   cordially  proclaims   her 


2  PASTORAL   LETTER    OF 

gratitude  for  the  treasure  bequeathed  to  us  by  their  wise  and  timely  legis- 
lation. Its  framers,  in  great  part,  have  gone  before  us  with  the  sign  of 
Faith  and  now  sleep  the  sleep  of  peace.  But  their  work,  after  following 
them  (Apoc.)  to  the  dread  tribunal  of  the  great  Judge  to  plead  in  their 
behalf  and  insure  their  reward,  has  remained  upon  earth  a  safe-guide  and 
rich  blessing  for  the  clergy  and  people  of  their  generation. 

Since  that  time,  however,  the  body  of  our  clergy  and  religious  has 
grown  to  wonderful  dimensions,  our  Catholic  institutions  have  been  multi- 
plied tenfold,  with  a  corresponding  increase  in  the  number  of  our  faithful 
laity.  The  territory,  likewise,  over  which  they  are  spread,  has  been 
greatly  enlarged.  The  land  of  the  far  West,  that  was  once  desolate  and 
impassable,  through  God's  providential  mercy,  now  rejoices  and  flourishes 
like  the  lily.  Under  His  guiding  hand,  it  has  been  taught  to  bud  forth 
and  blossom  and  rejoice  with  joy  and  praise.  The  wilderness  has  ex- 
changed its  solitude  for  the  hum  of  busy  life  and  industry;  and  the  steps 
of  our  missionaries  and  Catholic  settlers  have  invariably  either  preceded  or 
accompanied  the  westward  progress  of  civilization.  Forests  have  given 
away  to  cities,  where  Catholic  temples  re-echo  the  praises  of  the  Most 
High,  where  the  priceless  perfume  of  the  "  Clean  Oblation,"  foretold  by 
Malachi,  daily  ascends  to  heaven,  and  where  the  life-giving  sacraments  of 
Holy  Church  are  dispensed  by  a  devoted  clergy.  In  view  of  this  great 
progress  of  our  holy  religion,  this  marvellous  widening  of  (he  tabernacles 
of  Jacob,  it  has  been  judged  wise  and  expedient,  if  not  absolutely  neces- 
sary, to  examine  anew  the  legislation  of  our  predecessors,  not  with  any 
purpose  of  radical  change,  much  less  of  abrogation,  but  to  preserve  and 
perfect  its  spirit  by  adapting  it  to  our  altered  circumstances.  And  as 
every  day  gives  birth  to  new  errors,  and  lapseof  time  or  distance  of  place 
allows  abuses  to  gradually  creep  into  regular  discipline,  we  have  judged  it 
the  duty  of  our  pastoral  officg  to  check  the  latter  by  recalling  and  en- 
forcing established  law,  and  to  guard  our  flock  against  the  former  by  timely 
words  of  paternal  admonition. 

Such,  too,  has  been  the  expressed  wish  and  injunction  of  our  Holy 
Father  Leo  XIII,  happily  reigning,  tx)  whom,  as  Supreme  Pontiff  and 
successor  of  the  Prince  of  the  Apostles,  by  inherent  right  belongs  the  power 
of  convoking  this  our  Third  National  or  Plenary  Council,  and  of  appoint- 
ing (as  he  has  graciously  done)  an  Apostolic  Delegate  to  preside  over  its 
deliberations. 

One  of  the  most  important  events  that  our  age  has  witnessed  was  the 
assembling  by  Pius  IX,  of  happy  memory,  of  the  General  Council  of  the 
Vatican.     It  was  held  three  years  after  the  close  of  our  Second  Plenary 


TEE  TEIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL.  3 

Council,  and  all,  or  nearly  all,  of  its  members,  and  many  besides  of  the 
prelates  now  assembled  in  this  Third  Plenary  Council,  enjoyed  the  rare 
privilege  of  sitting  with  the  other  Princes  of  the  Church  in  the  only  Ecu- 
menical Synod  vouchsafed  these  latter  ages.  Its  appointed  task  was  to 
condemn  the  most  influential  and  insidious  errors  of  the  clay,  and  to  com- 
plete the  legislation  on  weighty  matters  of  discipline  that  had  been  contem- 
plated and  discussed,  but  left  undecided,  by  the  Council  of  Trent.  Like 
its  predecessor,  the  Council  of  the  Vatican  was  interrupted  by  the  disturbed 
condition  of  Europe;  and  the  Fathers,  leaving  the  work  of  their  delibera- 
tions unfinished,  returned  to  their  homes,  some  to  this  Western  continent, 
others  to  remote  regions  of  the  East.  But  we  would  fain  cherish  the  hope, 
and  lift  up  to  heaven  our  earnest  prayer,  that  the  Father  of  mercies  and 
God  of  all  consolation,  who  is  ever  ready  to  comfort  His  Church  in  all  her 
tribulations,  who  holds  in  His  hand  the  counsels  of  princes  and  the  devices 
of  peoples,  may  deign,  in  His  own  good  time,  to  reunite  the  prelates,  or  their 
successors,  over  the  tomb  of  St.  Peter  or  elsewhere,  as  may  seem  best  to 
His  infinite  wisdom.  The  Vatican  Council,  however,  during  its  short 
session  of  seven  months,  gave  solemn,  authoritative  utterance  to  some  great 
truths  which  the  Church  had  unvaryingly  held  from  the  days  of  Christ 
and  His  Apostles;  but  which  she  found  it  once  more  necessary  to  recall 
and  inculcate  against  the  widespread  skepticism  and  unbelief  of  our  day. 
Besides  condemning  the  philosophy,  no  less  wicked  than  false  and  teeming 
with  contradictions,  of  the  last  two  centuries,  and  especially  of  our  own 
times,  she  had  to  uphold  (such  is  the  lamentable  downward  course  of  those 
who  rebelled  against  her  divine  commission  to  teach  all  nations  !)  the  truth 
and  divinity  of  the  Sacred  Books  against  the  very  children  of  those,  who 
once  appealed  to  Scripture  to  disprove  her  teachings,  and  to  maintain  the 
dignity  and  value  of  human  reason  against  the  lineal  descendants  of  those, 
who  once  claimed  reason  as  the  supreme  ftnd  only  guide  in  picking  out 
friDm  her  creed  what  mysteries  they  would  retain,  what  mysteries  they 
would  reject.  Nobly  did  she  perform  her  duty  and  assert  in  the  face  of  a 
forgetful  or  unbelieving  world  that  reason  is  God's  highest  and  best  gift  to 
man  in  the  natural  order,  and  that  this  most  salutary  aid  of  his  weakness 
is  not  only  not  impaired,  but  strengthened,  supplemented  and  ennobled  by 
the  supernatural  gift  of  Divine  revelation. 

We  have  no  reason  to  fear  that  you,  beloved  brethren,  are  likely  to  be 
carried  away  by  these  or  other  false  doctrines  condemned  by  the  Vatican 
Council,  such  as  materialism  or  the  denial  of  God's  power  to  create,  to 
reveal  to  mankind  His  hidden  truths,  to  display  by  miracles  His  almighty 
2)ower  in  this  world  which  is  the  work  of  His  hands.     But  neither  can  we 


4  PASTORAL    LETTER    OF 

close  our  eyes  to  the  fact  that  teachers  of  skepticism  and  irreligion  are  at 
work  in  our  country.     They  have  crept  into  the  leading  educational  insti- 
tutions of  our  non-Catholic  fellow-citizens,  they  have  (though  rarely)  made 
their  appearance  in  the  public  press  and  even  in  the  pulpit.     Could  we  rely 
fully  on  the  innate  good  sense  of  the  American  people  and  on  that  habitual 
reverence  for  God  and  religion  which  has  so  far  been  their  just  pride  and 
glory,  there  might  seem  comparatively  little  danger  of  the  general  diffusion 
of  those  wild  theories  which  rejector  ignore  Revelation,  undermine  moral- 
itv,  and  end  not  unfrequently  by  banishing  God   from  His  own  creation. 
But  when  Ave  take  into  account  the  daily  signs   of  growing  unbelief,  and 
see  how  its  heralds  not  only  seek  to  mould  the  youthful  mind  in  our  col- 
leges and  seats  of  learning,  but  are  also  actively   working  amongst  the 
masses,  we  cannot  but  shudder  at  the  dangers  that  threaten  us  in  the  future. 
When  to  this  we  add  the  rapid  growth  of  that  false  civilization  which  hides 
its  foulness  under   the  name  of  enlightenment — involving,  as  it  does,  the 
undisguised  worship  of  mammon,  the  anxious  search  after  every  ease,  com- 
fort and  luxury  for  man's  physical  well-being,  the  all-absorbing  desire  to 
promote  his  material  interests,  the  unconcern  or  rather  contempt  for  those 
of  liis  higher  and  better  nature — we  cannot  but   feel  that  out  of  all   this 
must  grow  a  heartless  materialism,  which  is  the  best  soil   to   receive  the 
seeds  of  unbelief  and  irreligion,  which  threaten  to  desolate  the  country  at 
no  di-tant  day.     The  first  thing  to  perish  will  be  our  liberties.     For  men, 
who  know  not  God   or  religion,  can  never  respect  the  inalienable  rights 
which  man  has  received  from  His  Creator.     The  State  in  such  case  must 
become  a  despotism,  whether  its  power  be  lodged  in  the  hands  of  one  or 
many. 

To  you,  beloved  brethren,  who  possess  the  treasure  of  Catholic  faith,, 
we  may  safely  address  the  reiterated  injunctions  of  the  Lord  to  the  chosen 
leader  of  His  people. 

"Take  courage  and  be  strong  .  .  .  take  courage  and  be  very  valiant. 
.  .  .  Behold  I  command  thee,  take  courage  and  be  strong.  Fear  not 
and  be  not  dismayed,  because  the  Lord  thy  God  is  with  thee.''^  The  latter- 
clause  gives  the  reason  why  we  should  take  courage  and  be  strong.  An 
intermediate  verse  gives  the  means  of  securing  God's  assistance  :  "  Let 
not  the  book  of  this  law  depart  from  thy  mouth,  but  thou  shalt  meditate 
on  it  day  and  night,  that  thou  mayest  observe  and  do  the  things  that  are 
•written  in  it."  Keep,  then,  day  and  night,  before  your  eyes  the  Law  of" 
God  and  His  teachings  through  that  Holy  Church  that  He  has  appointed 
mother  and  mistress  of  all  men.  Fly  the  reading  of  all  infidel  books,  and 
keep  them  from  your  children,  as  you  would  the  poison  of  asp  or  basilisk.. 

I  Josue,  i,  6,  7,  8,  9. 


THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL.  5 

Teach  them  that  you  and  they,  in  listening-  to  Holy  Church,  have  the 
guidance  of  Him  who  said,  "  I  am  the  way,  the  truth  and  the  life."  Let 
others  doubt  or  deny,  but  with  the  Apostle,  you  know  whom  you  have 
believed,  and  you  are  certain  that  He  will  make  good  the  trust  vou  have 
reposed  in  Him.^ 

Christ  our  Lord  commissioned  His  Apostles  to  teach  mankind  the 
truths  they  had  been  taught  by  Him.  They  received  no  commandment 
to  write  on  any  doctrine,  mucli  less  to  draw  up  a  body  of  articles  of  faith 
such  as  our  children  now  learn  from  the  catechism.  They  preached  and 
taught  by  word  of  mouth;  or,  when  occasion  offered  itself,  they  wrote  as 
the  Divine  Spirit  prompted  them.  AVhat  they  wrote  and  what  they  de- 
livered by  oral  instruction  are  equally  God's  Word.  And  this  two-fold 
AVord,  written  and  unwritten,  is  the  Deposit  of  divine  truth,  committed  to 
the  keeping  of  the  Catholic  Church,  and  chiefly  to  him  on  whom  the 
Church  was  built — the  only  Apostle  who,  in  the  full  sense  of  the  words, 
yet  lives  and  rules  in  the  person  of  his  successors,  and  from  his  unfailing 
chair  imparts  to  all  who  seek  it  the  truth  of  Christian  faith. ^  It  is  his 
office  to  confirm  his  brethren,  and  the  history  of  the  Church  exhibits  him, 
from  the  beginning  and  through  all  ages,  as  faithfully  fulfilling  the  charge 
entrusted  to  him  by  his  Master.^  From  the  earliest  ages  down  to  our  own, 
the  voice  of  Peter  has  been  foremost  in  condemning  all  deviations  from 
apostolic  doctrine.  No  threats  of  worldly  power  could  subdue  or  silence 
that  voice.  To  such  threats  Peter,  through  his  successors,  has  ever  given 
the  same  answer  that  he  gave  at  Jerusalem  to  the  assembled  priests  and 
ancients.*  No  pleading  of  princes  and  potentates  could  ever  win  Rome's 
sympathy  for  error;  no  heresy  under  false  semblance  of  Catholic  truth 
ever  yet  eluded  her  vigilant  eye.^  As  soon  as  any  novelty  appeared,  all 
hearts  and  eyes  were  turned  towards  the  Chair  of  Peter,  and  when  that 
Chair  gave  its  decision,  the  Christian  people  yielded  obedience.  Those 
who  would  not  were  cut  off  from  the  communion  of  the  Church,  and  be- 
came thenceforth  as  the  heathen  and  the  publican. 

This  doctrine,  therefore,  which  had  so  thoroughly  wrought  itself  into 
the  life  and  action  of  the  Church,  the  Vatican  Council  deemed  proper  to 
consecrate  by  a  solemn  definition.  Hence,  that  no  one  in  future  may 
craftily  pretend  not  to  know,  how  and  whence  to  ascertain  what  the  Church 
officially  teaches  ;  above  all,  that  no  one  may  henceforth  scatter  the  bane- 
ful seeds  of  false  doctrine  with  impunity,  under  the  mask  of  an  appeal 
from  the  judgment  of  the  Holy  See  (whether  it  be  to  learned  universities, 

1 II.  Tim.,  i,  12.  3  Luke,  xii,  32. 

2  See  Bpist.  S.  Petri  Chrysologi  inter  Epp.  S.  Leonis  M.  «  Acts,  iv,  19-20. 

">  Cf .  St.  Cyprian.    Ep.  lix. 


6  PASTORAL  LETTER  OF 

or  State  tribunals,  or  future  councils,  particular  or  general,  as  was  done  by 
JiUther  and  the  Jansenists),  the  Church  of  the  living  Go<l,  through  the 
Fathers  of  the  Vatican  Council,  has  unequivocally  declared  that  her 
authentic  spokesman  is  the  successor  of  St.  Peter  in  the  Apostolic  See  of 
Rome,  and  that  what  he,  as  Head  of  the  Church,  official ly  decides  is  part 
of  the  Deposit  of  Faith  intrusted  to  her  keeping  by  Christ  Our  Lord,  and 
hence  subject  to  neither  denial,  doubt  nor  revision,  but  to  be  implicitly 
received  and  believed  by  all. 

In  tins  authoritative  declaration  there  is  nothing  new,  nothing  to  give 
cause  for  wonder.  It  is  only  setting  the  solemn  seal  of  definition  upon 
what  has  always  been  the  belief  and  practice  of  the  Church.  Yet  "the 
gates  of  Hell,"  the  powers  of  darkness  that  forever  assail  the  Church  built 
on  Peter — though  knowing  (for  the  very  devils  believe  and  tremble  in 
believing)^  that  they  cannot  prevail  against  it  nor  make  void  God's 
promise- — seem  to  have  been  stirred  to  their  very  depths  by  the  procla- 
mation of  this  great  truth.  And  their  impotent  rage  has  found  its  echo 
uj)on  earth.  The  definition  evoked  a  storm  of  fierce  obloquy  and  reckless 
vituperation,  such  as  has  been  seldom  witnessed  amongst  our  opponents. 
And  a  wretched  handful  of  apostate  Catholics  "  went  out  from  us,  but  they 
were  not  of  us."' 

But,  what  was  far  more  serious,  the  kings  of  the  earth  stood  up  and  the 
princes  assembled  together  against  the  Lord*  and  against  His  annointed 
Vicar,  because  of  the  definition.  They  revived  the  old  war-cry  raised  by 
the  Jews  against  our  Saviour^  and  so  often  renewed  by  the  persecutors  of 
the  Church.  They  pretended  that  by  defining  the  infallibility  of  St. 
Peter's  successor,  she  had  made  herself  the  enemy  of  Cfesar.  Herein  we  see 
plainly  verified  the  strong  language  of  Scripture:  "  Iniquity  hath  lied  to 
itself."^  The  Pope,  even  after  the  proclamation  of  his  infallibility,  is  no 
more  the  enemy  of  Caesar  and  of  human  governments,  than  was  the  infalli- 
ble Peter  the  enemy  of  Nero,  or  Christ  our  Lord,  who  is  infallible  truth 
itself,  the  enemy  of  Augustus  and  Tiberius  under  whom  He  was  born  into 
the  world,  taught  and  suffered.  The  governments  by  which,  three  centu- 
ries ago,  the  new  tenets  of  Luther,  Zwingli  and  Calvin  had  been  imposed 
on  reluctant  peoples  by  the  sword,  were  the  first,  indeed  the  only  ones,  to 
again  unsheathe  it  against  Catholic  believers,  and  especially  against  the 
bishops  and  clergy.  It  was  their  purpose  to  exterminate  by  degrees  the 
Catholic  hierarchy,  and  replace  it  by  a  servile  priesthood  that  would  subor- 
dinate its  preaching  and  ministry  to  the  will  of  the  State.     To  do  thisj 

1  Credunt  et  contremiscunt,  J  ames  ii,  19.  *  Acts,  i v,  26. 

'  Malth.,  xvi,  18.  ^  John,  xix,  12, 15. 

3  John,  ii,  19.  •  Ps.,  xxvl,  19. 


THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL.  7 

they  had  to  trample  on  solemn  treaties  and  organic  laws.  But  the  Catho- 
lics of  Prussia,  clergy  and  people,  while  proving  themselves  most  devoted 
and  faithful  to  their  country's  laws,  stood  up  like  a  wall  of  adamant  against 
the  tyranny  of  its  rulers.  With  generous  vigor  and  admirable  constancy, 
they  availed  themselves  of  every  legal  and  constitutional  means  to  check 
the  advances  of  despotism  and  save  their  own  freedom  at)d  that  of  their 
country.  They  have  given  to  the  world  a  glorious  cxarn])]e,  wliich  it  is 
to  be  hoped  the  victims  of  tyrannous  Liberalism  in  Catholic  countries  may 
some  day  have  the  wisdom  or  the  courage  to  imitate.  The  struggle  has 
now  lasted  fourteen  years;  but  the  very  friends  of  this  ])er,secuting  legisla- 
tion have  been  driven  at  last  to  acknowledge  that  it  has  proved  to  be  a 
miserable  failure;  and  no  better  proof  of  it  could  be  found  than  the  fact, 
tiiat  the  rulers  of  Prussia  have  had  to  fall  back  on  the  patriotism  of  the 
Catholic  body  to  stay  the  threatening  march  of  socialism  and  revolution. 
In  Switzerland,  too,  the  persecution  has  yielded  to  the  policy  of  mildness 
and  conciliation  adopted  by  Our  Holy  Father,  Leo  XIII. 

Beloved  brethren,  we  have  no  need  to  encourage  you  to  hold  steadfastly 
to  this  doctrine  of  the  Vatican  Council ;  for  you  were  trained  from  infancy 
to  believe  it,  as  were  your  fathers  before  you,  while  it  was  not  yet  invested 
with  the  formalities  of  a  definition,  just  as  the  early  Christians  held  firmly 
to  the  divinity  of  the  Son  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost  three  hundred  years  be- 
fore the  Church  found  it  necessary  to  define  them  in  the  Councils  of  Nice 
and  Byzantium. 

And  in  our  own  country,  writers  and  speakers  who  know  the  Church 
only  by  the  caricatures  drawn  by  prejudice,  have  occasionally  re-echoed  the 
same  charge;  but  despite  local  and  temporary  excitements,  the  good  sense 
of  the  American  people  has  always  j)revailed  against  the  calumny.  We 
think  we  can  claim  to  be  acquainted  both  with  the  laws,  institutions  and 
spirit  of  the  Catholic  Church,  and  with  the  laws,  institutions  and  spirit  of 
our  country  ;  and  we  emphatically  declare  that  there  is  no  antagonism 
between  them.  A  Catholic  finds  himself  at  home  in  the  United  States; 
for  the  influence  of  his  Church  has  constantly  been  exercised  in  behalf 
of  individual  rights  and  popular  liberties.  And  the  right-minded  American 
nowhere  finds  himself  more  at  home  than  in  the  Catholic  Church,  for 
nowhere  else  can  he  breathe  more  freely  that  atmosphere  of  Divine  truth, 
Avhich  alone  can  make  him  free.^  « 

We  repudiate  with  equal  earnestness  the  assertion  that  we  need  to  lay 
aside  any  of  our  devotedness  to  our  Church,  to  be  true  Americans; 
the    insinuation     that   we    need   to    abate    any     of  our    love    for  our 

1  John,  viii,  32. 


8  PASTORAL  LETTER   OF 

country's  principles  and  institutions,  to  be  faithful  Catholics.  To 
argue  that  the  Catholic  Church  is  hostile  to  our  great  Republic,  because 
she  teaches  that  "  there  is  no  power  but  from  Gocl;"i  because,  therefore, 
back  of  the  events  which  led  to  the  formation  of  the  Republic,  she  sees  the 
Providence  of  God  leading  to  that  issue,  and  back  of  our  country's  laws 
the  authority  of  God  as  their  sanction, — this  is  evidently  so  illogical  and 
contradictory  an  accusation,  that  we  are  astonished  to  hear  ifc  advanced 
by  persons  of  ordinary  intelligence.  We  believe  tliat  our  country's 
heroes  were  the  instruments  of  the  God  of  Nations  in  establishing  this 
home  of  freedom  ;  to  both  the  Almighty  and  to  His  instruments  in  the 
work,  we  look  with  grateful  reverence  ;  and  to  maintain  the  inheritance 
of  freedom  which  they  have  left  us,  should  it  ever — which  God  forbid — 
be  imperilled,  our  Catholic  citizens  will  be  found  to  stand  forward,  as 
one  man  ready  to  pledge  anew  "  their  lives,  their  fortunes,  and  their 
sacred  honor." 

No  less  illogical  would  be  the  notion,  that  there  is  aught  in  the  free 
spirit  of  our  American  institutions,  incompatible  with  perfect  docility  to 
the  Church  of  Christ.  The  spirit  of  American  freedom  is  not  one  of  an- 
archy or  license.  It  essentially  involves  love  of  order,  respect  for  rightful 
authority,  and  obedience  to  just  laws.  There  is  nothing  iu  the  character  of 
the  most  liberty-loving  American,  which  could  hinder  iiis  reverential  sub- 
mission to  the  Divine  authority  of  Our  Lord,  or  to  the  like  authority  del- 
egated by  Him  to  His  Apostles  and  His  Church.  Nor  are  there  in  the 
world  more  devoted  adherents  of  the  Catholic  Church,  the  See  of 
Peter,  and  the  Vicar  of  Christ,  than  the  Catholics  of  the  United 
States.  Narrow,  insular,  national  views  and  jealousies  concerning  ecclesias- 
tical authority  and  Church  organization,  may  have  s})rung  naturally  enough 
from  the  selfish  policy  of  certain  riders  and  nations  in  by-gone  times;  but 
they  find  no  sympathy  in  the  spirit  of  the  true  American  Catholic.  His 
natural  instincts,  no  less  than  his  religious  training,  would  forbid  him  to 
submit  in  matters  of  faith  to  the  dictation  of  the  State  or  to  any  merely 
human  authority  whatsoever.  He  accepts  the  religion  and  the  Church 
that  are  from  God,  and  he  knows  well  that  these  are  universal,  not 
national  or  local, — for  all  the  children  of  men,  not  for  any  special 
tribe  or  tongue.  We  glory  that  we  are,  and,  with  God's  blessing, 
shall  continue  to  be,  not  the  American  Church,  nor  the  Church  of  the 
United  States,  nor  a  Church  in  any  other  sense  exclusive  or  limited, 
but  an  integral  part  of  the  one,  holy,  Catliolic  and  Apostolic  Church  of 
Jesus  Christ,  which  is  the  Body  of  Christ,  in  which  there  is  no  distinction 
of  classes  and  nationalities, — in  which  all  are  one  in  Christ  Jesus.  2 


1  Horn.,  xiii,  1.  2Gal.iii.2S. 


I 


THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL,  9 

While  the  assaults  of  calumny  and  persecution  directed  against  the 
Church  since  the  Vatican  Council  have  abundantly  shown  how  angry  the 
powers  of  evil  have  been  at  the  Council's  luminous  utterances  of  Divine 
truth,  our  Holy  Father  the  Pope  has  been,  naturally  enough,  the  main 
object  of  attack.  And  Divine  Providence  has  been  pleased  to  leave  him, 
for  a  while  at  the  mercy  of  his  enemies,  in  order  that  their  impious  violence 
might  work  out  the  demonstration  of  its  own  injustice;  that  the  true  char- 
acter and  the  indestructibility  of  the  oflliceof  St.  Peter  might  be  made  mani- 
fest to  the  world;  that  the  wisdom  of  the  Providence  which  has  guarded 
the  independence  of  that  office  in  the  past,  might  be  vindicated  and  reaffirmed 
for  the  future.  The  great  and  beloved  Pius  IX  died  the  "Prisoner  of  the 
Vatican,"  and  Leo  XIII  has  inherited  his  Apostolic  trials,  together  with 
his  Apostolic  office.  Day  after  day  he  has  seen  the  consecrated  patrimony 
of  religion  and  charity  swept  into  Cfesar's  coffers  by  the  ruthless  hand  of 
spoliation  and  confiscation.  At  this  moment,  he  sees  that  same  grasp  laid 
upon  the  property  of  the  Propaganda,  piously  set  apart  for  spreading  the 
Cospel  of  Jesus  Christ  throughout  the  missionary  countries  of  the  world. 
So  utterly  unjustifiable  an  act  lias  called  forth  a  cry  of  indignant  protest 
from  the  Catholics  of  all  countries,  and  from  no  country  has  the  cry 
gone  forth  clearer  and  louder  than  from  our  own.  We  thank  our  gov- 
ernment for  the  action  that  saved  the  American  College  from  confisca- 
tion; and  we  hope  that  the  protest  and  appeal  of  all  governments  and 
peoples  that  "  love  justice  and  hate  iniquity  "  may  yet  shame  the  spoiler 
into  honesty.  Meanwhile  the  hearts  of  all  Catholics  go  out  all  the  more 
lovingly  towards  their  persecuted  Chief  Pastor ;  and  from  their  worldly 
means,  be  they  abundant  or  scanty,  they  gladly  supply  him  with  the  means 
necessary  for  carrying  on  the  administration  of  his  high  office.  Such  has 
been  your  liberality  in  the  past,  beloved  brethren,  that  we  hardly  need 
exhort  you  to  generosity  in  the  collection  for  the  Holy  Father,  which  will 
continue  to  be  made  annually  throughout  all  the  dioceses  of  the  country. 
Let  your  devoted  affection  be  shown  by  your  deeds,  and  the  persist- 
ency of  injustice  be  more  than  matched  by  the  constancy  of  your  faithful 
and  generous  love. 

While  enduring  with  the  heroism  of  a  martyr  the  trials  which  beset 
him,  and  trustfully  awaiting  the  Almighty's  day  of  deliverance,  the  energy 
and  wisdom  of  Leo  XIII  are  felt  to  the  ends  of  the  earth.  He  is  carrying 
on  with  the  governments  of  Europe  the  negotiations  which  promise  soon 
to  bring  peace  to  the  Church.  In  the  East  he  is  preparing  the  way  for 
the  return  to  Catholic  unity  of  the  millions  whom  the  Greek  schism  has 
so  long  deprived  of  communion  with  the  See  of  Peter,  and  is  following 


10  PASTORAL  LETTER   OF 

the  progress  of  exploration  in  lands  hitherto  unknown  or  inaccessible 
Avith  corresponding  advances  of  Catholic  missions.  To  the  whole  world 
his  voice  has  again  and  again  been  gone  forth  in  counsels  of  eloquence 
and  wisdom,  pointing  out  the  path  to  the  acquisition  of  truth  in  the 
important  domain  of  philosophy  and  history — the  best  means  for  the 
improvement  of  human  life  in  all  its  phases,  individual,  domestic  and 
social — the  ways  in  which  the  children  of  God  should  walk — "  that  all 
flesh  may  see  the  salvation  of  God." 

But  in  all  the  wide  circle  of  his  great  responsibility,  the  progress  of 
the  Church  in  these  United  States  forms,  in  a  special  manner,  both  a 
source  of  joy  and  an  object  of  solicitude  to  the  Holy  Father.  With  loving 
care  his  predecessors  watched  and  encouraged  her  first  feeble  begin- 
nings. They  cheered  and  fostered  her  development  in  the  pure  atmosphere 
of  freedom,  when  the  name  of  Carroll  shone  with  equal  lustre  at  the  head 
of  her  new-born  Hierarchy,  and  on  the  roll  of  our  country's  patriots. 
Step  by  stop  they  directed  her  progress,  as  with  marvellous  rapidity, 
the  clergy  and  the  dioceses  have  multiplied  ;  the  hundreds  of  the  faithful 
have  increased  to  thousands  and  to  millions  ;  her  churches,  sci)ools,  asy- 
lums, hospitals,  academies  and  colleges,  have  covered  the  land  with  homes 
of  divine  truth  and  Christian  charity.  Not  yet  a  century  has  elapsed  since 
the  work  was  inaugurated  by  the  appointment  of  the  first  Bishop  of  Balti- 
more, in  1789 ;  and  as  we  gaze  upon  the  results  already  reached  we  must 
exclaim:  "By  the  Lord  hath  this  been  done,  and  it  is  wonderful  in 
our  eyes."^ 

In  all  this  astonishing  development,  from  the  rude  beginnings  of 
pioneer  missionary  toil,  along  the  nearer  and  nearer  approaches  to  the 
beauteous  symmetry  of  the  Church's  perfect  organization,  the  advance  sa 
gradual  yet  so  rapid  has  been  safely  guided  in  the  lines  of  Catholic 
and  i^postolic  tradition,  by  the  combined  efforts  and  wisdom  of  our  local 
Hierarchy  an<l  of  the  successors  of  St.  Peter.  It  was  in  order  to  take 
counsel  with  the  representatives  of  the  American  Hierarchy  concerning  the 
important  interests  of  religion  in  this  country,  that  the  Holy  Father,  last 
year,  invited  the  Archbishops  of  the  United  States  to  Kome.  And  the 
object  of  the  present  council  is  to  j)ut  into  practical  shape  the  means  of 
religious  improvement  then  resolved  upon  or  suggested. 

EDUCATION    OF    THE    CLERGY. 

One  of  our  first  cares  has  been  to  provide  for  the  more  perfect  education 
of  aspirants  to  the  holy  Priesthood.  It  has  always  been  the  Church's 
endeavor  that  her   clergy  should   be    eminent   in    learning.     For   she  ha& 

1  Matt.,  xxl,  42;  Ps.,  cxvil,  22. 


THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL.  11 

always  considered  that  nothing  less  than  this  is  required  by  their  sacred 
office  of  guarding  and  dispensing  Divine  truth.  "  The  lips  of  the 
priest  shall  keep  knowledge,"  says  the  Most  High,  "  and  the  i)eople  shall 
seek  the  law  at  his  mouth."  This  is  true  in  all  times;  for  no  advance  in 
secular  knowledge,  no  diffusion  of  popular  education,  can  do  away  with 
the  office  of  the  teaching  ministry,  which  Our  Lord  has  declared  shall  last 
forever.  In  every  age  it  is  and  shall  be  the  duty  of  God's  priests  to  pro- 
claim the  salutary  truths  which  our  Heavenly  Father  has  given  to  the 
world  through  His  Divine  Son  ;  to  present  them  to  each  generation  in  the 
way  that  will  move  thoir  minds  and  hearts  to  embrace  and  love  them ;  to 
defend  them,  when  necessary,  against  every  attack  of  error.  From  this  it  is 
obvious  that  the  priest  should  have  a  wide  acquaintance  with  every  depart- 
ment of  learning  that  has  a  bearina:  on  relio;ious  truth.  Hence  in  our 
age,  when  so  many  misleading  theories  are  put  forth  on  every  side,  when 
eve«ry  department  of  natural  truth  and  fact  is  actively  explored  for  objec- 
tions against  revealed  religion,  it  is  evident  how  extensive  and  thorough 
should  be  the  knowledge  of  the  minister  of  the  Divine  Word,  that  he 
may  be  able  to  show  forth  worthily  the  beauty,  the  superiority,  the  neces- 
sity of  the  Christian  religion,  and  to  prove  that  there  is  nothing  in  all  that 
God  has  made  to  contradict  anything  that  God  has  tajght. 

Hence  the  priest  who  has  the  noble  ambition  of  attaining  to  the  high  level 
of  his  holy  office,  may  well  consider  himself  a  student  all  his  life;  and  of 
the  leisure  hours  which  he  can  find  amid  the  duties  of  his  ministry,  he  will 
have  very  few  that  he  can  spare  for  miscellaneous  reading,  and  none  at 
all  to  waste.  And  hence,  too,  the  evident  duty  devolving  on  us,  to  see 
that  the  course  of  education  in  our  ecclesiastical  colleges  and  seminaries 
be  as  perfect  as  it  can  be  made.  During  the  century  of  extraordinary 
growth  now  closing,  the  care  of  the  C'hurch  in  this  country  has  been  to 
send  forth  as  rapidly  as  possible  holy,  zealous,  hard-working  priests,  to 
supply  the  needs  of  the  multitudes  calling  for  the  ministrations  of 
religion.  She  has  not  on  that  account  neglected  to  prepare  them  for 
their  divine  work  by  a  suitable  education,  as  her  numerous  and  admirable 
seminaries  testify ;  but  the  course  of  study  was  often  more  rapid  and 
restricted  than  she  desired.  At  present  our  improved  circumstances  make 
it  practicable  both  to  lengthen  and  widen  the  course,  and  for  this  the 
Council  has  duly  provided. 

We  are  confident,  beloved  brethren,  that  you  feel  as  deeply  interested 
as  ourselves  in  the  accomplishment  of  these  great  results.  This  you  have 
hitherto  manifested  by  the  zealous  liberality  by  which  you  have  enabled  us  to 
build  and  support  our  seminaries ;  and  we  are  well  assured  that  you  will  not 


12  PASTORAL  LETTER   OF 

be  found  wanting,  should  even  greater  efforts  be  necessary,  to  enable  us  to 
make  the  education  and  usefulness  of  the  clergy  as  perfect  as  we  desire. 
In  the  future,  as  in  the  past,  look  upon  your  annual  contribution  to  the  Semi- 
nary fund  as  one  of  your  most  important  duties  as  Catholics,  and  let  your 
generosity  be  proportioned  to  the  dignity  and  sacredness  of  the  object  for 
which  you  offer  it. 

And  here  we  remind  those  among  our  Catholic  people  to  whom  God 
has  been  pleased  to  give  wealth,  that  it  is  their  duty  and  their  privilege  to 
•consider  themselves  the  Lord's  stewards,  in  the  use  of  what  His  Providence 
has  placed  in  their  hands;  that  they  should  be  foremost  in  helping  on  the 
work  of  the  Church  of  Christ  during  life,  and  make  sure  to  have  God 
among  their  heirs  when  they  die;  and  we  recommend  to  them  as  specially 
useful  the  founding  of  scholarships,  either  in  their  diocesan  or  provincial 
Seminaries,  or  in  the  American  College  in  Rome,  or  elsewhere,  as  circum- 
stances may  suggest. 

PASTORAL    EIGHTS. 

No  small  portion  of  our  attention  has  been  bestowed  on  the  framing 
of  such  legislation  as  will  best  secure  the  rights  and  interests  of  your 
pastors,  and  of  all  ranks  of  the  clergy  in  this  country.  It  is  but  natural, 
beloved  brethren,  that  the  first  and  dearest  object  of  our  solicitude  should 
be  our  venerable  clergy.  They  are  our  dearest  brethren,  bound  to  us 
by  ties  more  sacred  than  those  of  flesh  and  blood.  Our  elevation  to 
a  higher  office  only  draws  them  to  us  more  closely,  since  their  happiness 
and  welfare  are  thereby  made  the  first  object  of  our  responsibility,  and 
since  upon  t-heir  devoted  labors  must  mainly  depend  the  welfare  of 
the  souls  entrusted  to  our  charge.  We  need  not  tell  you,  beloved 
brethren,  how  admirably  they  fulfil  their  sacred  trust.  You  are  wit- 
nesses to  their  lives  of  toil  and  sacrifice.  And  to  them  we  can  truly  say 
in  the  words  of  St.  Paul,  "You  are  our  glory  and  our  joy."^ 

The  rights  of  the  clergy  have  reference  chiefly  to  their  exercising  the 
sacred  ministry  in  their  missions,  to  the  fixity  of  their  tenureof  office  and  to 
the  inviolableness  of  their  pastoral  authority  within  proper  limits.  It  is 
the  spirit  of  the  Church  that  the  various  grades  of  authority  in  her  organi- 
zation should  in  no  wise  be  in  rivalry  or  conflict,  but  orderly  and  harmo- 
nious. This  she  has  secured  by  her  wise  laws,  based  upon  the  experience 
of  centuries,  and  representing  the  perfection  of  Church  organization.  It 
is  obvious  that  in  countries  like  our  own,  where  from  rudimentary  begin- 
nings our  organization  is  only  gradually  advancing  towards  perfection, 
the  full  application  of  these  laws  is  impracticable;  but  in  proportion  as 

1  I.  Thcs.,  ii,  20. 


THE  THIRD   PLENARY  COUNCIL.  13 

they  become  practicable,  it  is  our  desire,  not  less  than  that  of  the  Holy 
See,  that  they  should  go  into  effect.  For  we  have  the  fullest  confidence  in 
the  wisdom  with  which  the  Church  devised  these  laws,  and  we  heartily 
rejoice  at  every  approach  towards  perfect  organization  in  the  portion  of  the 
-vineyard  over  which  we  have  jurisdiction.  This  has  been  to  some  degree 
accomplished  by  regulations  enacted  during  recent  years,  and  still  more  by 
the  decrees  of  the  present  Council. 

But  while  it  is  our  desire  to  do  all  on  our  part  that  both  justice  and  affec- 
tion can  prompt,  for  fully  securing  all  proper  rights  and  privileges  to  our 
priests,  let  us  remind  you,  beloved  brethren,  that  on  your  conduct  must  their 
happiness  chiefly  depend.  A  grateful  and  pious  flock  is  sure  to  make  a  happy 
pastor.  But  if  the  people  do  not  respond  to  their  pastor's  zeal,  if  they 
are  cold  and  ungrateful  or  disedifying,  then  indeed  is  his  lot  sad 
^nd  pitiable.  Since,  therefore,  the  Priests  of  God  leave  all  things  to 
■devote  themselves  to  your  spiritual  welfare,  show  by  your  affection,  by 
your  co-operation  with  their  efforts  for  your  spiritual  improvement,  and  even 
by  your  care  for  their  physical  comfort,  that  you  appreciate  their  devotedness 
and  the  reciprocal  obligation  which  it  imposes.  Look  upon  your 
priests  as  your  best  friends,  your  trustiest  advisers,  your  surest  guides.  If 
•duty  sometimes  calls  upon  them  to  admonish  or  rebuke  you,  remember  that 
the  reproof  is  meant  for  your  good,  and  take  it  in  the  spirit  in  which  it  is 
given.  And  if  perchance  they  have  to  speak  to  you  oftener  than  is  pleas- 
ant about  church  finances  and  the  demands  of  charity,  understand  tliat  it 
must  be  at  least  as  disagreeable  to  them  as  it  is  to  you ;  that 
it  is  not  for  themselves,  but  for  the  needs  of  the  parish  church  or  school, 
which  are  intended  for  your  benefit,  or  of  the  parish  poor,  who  are  your 
•charge,  that  they  have  to  plead ;  and  that,  while  they  are  to  bear  in  mind 
the  advisability  of  speaking  of  money  as  seldom  as  possible,  you 
must  be  mindful  to  make  your  generosity  equal  to  the  need,  and  thereby 
save  both  your  pastors  and  yourselves  the  painful  necessity  of  frequent 
appeals. 

And  here  we  deem  it  proper  to  say  a  few  words  concerning  church 
properties  a«d  church  debts.  The  manner  of  holding  the  legal  titl^  to 
these  properties  is  different  in  different  places,  according  to  the  require- 
ments of  local  civil  laws;  but  whether  the  title  be  held  by  the  bishop,  or 
by  boards  of  diocesan  or  parish  trustees,  it  always  remains  true  that  the 
properties  are  held  in  trust  for  the  Ciiurch  for  the  benefit  of  the  people. 
One  generation  buys  or  builds,  another  generatiw  improves  and  adorns, 
and  each  generation  uses  and  transmits  for  the  use  of  others  yet  to  come, — 
bishops  and  priests  having  the  burden  of  the  administration  and  being 
«acred]y  responsible  for  its  faithful  performance. 


14  PASTORAL  LETTER   OF 

In  the  discharge  of  this  duty  it  often  becomes  necessary  to  contract 
church  debts.  Where  the  multiplication  of  the  Catholic  population  has 
been  so  rapid,  rapid  work  had  to  be  done  in  erecting  churches  and  schools. 
And  if,  under  such  circumstances,  pastors  had  to  wait  till  all  the  funds 
were  in  hand  before  beginning  the  work,  a  generation  would  be  left 
without  necessary  spiritual  aids,  and  might  be  lost  to  the  Church  and  to 
God.  We  fully  recognize,  beloved  brethren,  how  strictly  we  are  bound 
to  prevent  the  contraction  of  debts  without  real  necessity ;  and  this  we 
have  endeavored  to  secure  by  careful  legislation.  Still,  despite  all  our 
efforts,  it  must  inevitably  happen  that  the  burden  imposed  on  us  by  our 
gigantic  task  of  providing  for  the  spiritual  wants  of  the  present  and  the 
rising  generation  will  always  be  heavy,  and  will  weigh  upon  us  all.  But 
the  special  Providence  of  God  towards  our  country,  which  has  made  the 
work  and  the  need  so  great,  has  never  failed  hitherto  to  inspire  our  people 
with  a  zeal  equal  to  the  demand.  You  have  rivaled  your  pastors  in  the 
ardor  of  their  desire  for  the  building  up  of  the  Church  of  Christ  and  the 
extension  of  His  Kingdom ;  and  we  are  confident  that  you  will  preserve 
your  zeal  unto  the  end,  and  transmit  it  undiminished  to  your  descendants. 
It  is  our  earnest  wish  that  existing  debts  should  be  liquidated  as  soon  as 
possible,  in  order  that  the  money  now  consumed  in  paying  interest  may 
be  employed  in  the  great  imjirovements  still  to  be  made,  and  especially  in 
helping  on  the  glorious  work  of  Christian  education. 

CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION. 

Scarcely,  if  at  all,  secondary  to  the  Church's  desire  for  the  education  of 
the  clergy,  is  her  solicitude  for  the  education  of  the  laity.  It  is  not  for 
themselves,  but  for  the  people,  that  the  Church  wishes  her  clergy  to  be 
learned,  as  it  is  not  for  themselves  only,  but  for  the  people  that  they  are 
priests.  Popular  education  has  always  been  a  chief  object  of  the  Church's 
care;  in  fact,  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the  history  of  civil- 
ization and  education  is  the  history  of  the  Church's  work.  In  the  rude 
ages,  when  semi-barbarous  chieftains  boasted  of  their  illiteracy,  she  suc- 
ceeded in  diffusing  that  love  of  learning  which  covered  Europe 
with  schools  and  universities ;  and  thus  from  the  barbarous  tribes  of  the 
early  middle  ages,  she  built  up  the  civilized  nations  of  modern  times. 
Even  subsequent  to  the  religious  dissensions  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
whatever  progress  has  been  made  in  education  is  mainly  due  to  the 
impetus  which  she  had  previously  given.  In  our  own  country  notwith- 
standing the  many  difficulties  attendant  on  first  beginnings  and  unexampled 
growth,  we  already  find  her  schools,  academies  and  colleges  everywhere. 


THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL.  15 

built  and  sustained  by  voluntary  contributions,  even  at  the  cost  of  great 
sacrifices,  and  comparing  favorably  with  the  best  educational  institutions 
in  the  land. 

These  facts  abundantly  attest  the  Church's  desire  for  popular  instruc- 
tion. The  beauty  of  truth,  the  refining  and  elevating  influences  of  knowl- 
edge, are  meant  for  all,  and  she  wishes  thetn  to  be  brought  within  the 
reach  of  all.  Knowledge  enlarges  our  capacity  both  for  self-improvement 
and  for  promoting  the  welfare  of  our  fellow-men  ;  and  in  so  noble  a  Mork 
the  Church  wishes  every  hand  to  be  busy.  Knowledge,  too,  is  the  best 
weapon  against  pernicious  errors.  It  is  only  "  a  little  learning  "  that  is 
"  a  dangerous  thing."  In  days  like  ours,  when  error  is  so  pretentious  and 
aggressive,  every  one  needs  to  be  as  completely  armed  as  possible  with 
sound  knowledge, — not  only  the  clergy,  but  the  people  also  that  they  may 
be  able  to  withstand  the  noxious  influences  of  popularized  irreligion.  In 
the  great  coming  combat  between  truth  and  error,  between  Faith  and 
Agnosticism,  an  important  part  of  the  fray  must  be  borne  by  the  laity, 
and  woe  to  them  if  they  are  not  well  prepared.  And  if,  in  the  olden  days 
of  vassalage  and  serfdom,  the  Church  honored  every  individual,  no  matter 
how  humble  his  position,  and  labored  to  give  him  the  enlightenment  that 
would  qualify  him  for  future  responsibilities,  much  more  now,  in  the  era 
of  popular  rights  and  liberties,  when  every  individual  is  an  active  and 
influential  factor  in  the  body  politic,  does  she  desire  that  all  should  be 
fitted  by  suitable  training  for  an  in'^elligent  and  conscientious  discharge  of 
the  important  duties  that  will  devolve  upon  them. 

Few,  if  any,  will  deny  that  a  sound  civilization  must  depend  upon 
sound  popular  education.  But  education,  in  order  to  be  sound  and  to 
produce  beneficial  results,  must  develop  what  is  best  in  man,  and  make 
him  not  only  clever  but  good.  A  one-sided  education  M'ill  develop  a 
one-sided  life;  and  such  a  life  will  surely  topple  over,  and  so  will  every 
social  system  that  is  built  up  of  such  lives.  True  civilization  requires  that 
not  only  the  physical  and  intellectual,  but  also  the  moral  and  religious, 
well-being  of  the  people  should  be  promoted,  and  at  least  with  equal  care. 
Take  away  religion  from  a  people,  and  morality  would  soon  follow; 
morality  gone,  even  their  physical  condition  will  ere  long  degenerate 
into  corruption  which  breeds  decrepitude,  while  their  intellectual  attain- 
ments would  only  serve  as  a  light  to  guide  them  to  deeper  depths  of  vice 
and  ruin.  This  has  been  so  often  demonstrated  in  the  history  of  the  past, 
and  is,  in  fact,  so  self-evident,  that  one  is  amazed  to  find  any  difference 
of  opinion  about  it.  A  civilization  without  religion,  would  be  a  civiliza- 
tion of  •'  the  struggle  for  existence,  and  the  survival  of  the  fittest,"  in 


16  PASTORAL  LETTER   OF 

which  cunning  and  strength  would  become  the  substitutes  for  principle^ 
virtue,  conscience  and  duty.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  there  never  has  been  a 
civilization  worthy  of  the  name  without  religion ;  and  from  the  facts  of 
liistory  the  laws  of  hwman  nature  can  easily  be  inferred. 

Hence  education,  in  order  to  foster  civilization,  must  foster  religion. 
Now  the  three  great  educational  agencies  are  tlie  home,  the  Church,  and  the 
school.  These  mould  men  and  shape  society.  Therefore  each  of  them,, 
to  do  its  part  well,  must  foster  religion.  But  many,  unfortunately, 
while  avowing  that  religion  should  be  the  light  and  the  atmosphere 
of  the  home  and  of  the  Church,  are  content  to  see  it  excluded  from  the 
school,  and  even  advocate  as  the  best  school  system  that  which  necessarily 
excludes  religion.  Few  surely  will  deny  that  childhood  and  youth  are 
the  periods  of  life  when  the  character  ought  especially  to  be  subjected  to 
religious  influences.  Nor  can  we  ignore  the  palpable  fact  that  the  school  is 
an  important  factor  in  the  forming  of  childhood  and  youth, — so  important 
that  its  influence  often  outweighs  that  of  home  and  Church.  It  cannot, 
therefore,  be  desirable  or  advantageous  that  religion  should  be  excluded 
from  the  school.  On  the  contrary,  it  ought  there  to  be  one  of  the  chief 
agencies  for  moulding  the  young  life  to  all  that  is  true  and  virtuous,  and 
holy.  To  shut  religion  out  of  the  school,  and  keep  it  for  home  and  the 
Church,  is,  logically,  to  train  up  a  generation  that  will  consider  religion 
good  for  home  and  the  Church,  but  not  for  the  practical  business  of  real 
life.  But  a  more  false  and  pernicious  notion  could  not  be  imagined. 
Religion,  in  order  to  elevate  a  people,  should  inspire  their  whole  life  and 
rule  their  relations  with  one  another.  A  life  is  not  dwarfed,  but  ennobled 
by  being  lived  in  the  presence  of  God.  Therefore  the  school,  which  princi- 
pally gives  the  knowledge  fitting  for  practical  life,  ought  to  be  pre-emi- 
nently under  the  holy  influence  of  religion.  From  the  shelter  of  home 
and  school,  the  youth  must  soon  go  out  into  the  busy  ways  of  trade  or 
traffic  or  professional  pract«ice.  In  all  these,  the  principles  of  religion 
should  animate  and  direct  him.  But  he  cannot  expect  to  learn  these 
principles  in  the  work-shop  or  the  office  or  the  counting-room.  Therefore 
let  him  be  well  and  thoroughly  imbued  with  them  by  the  joint  influences 
of  home  and  school,  before  he  is  launched  out  on  the  dangerous  sea  of  life. 

All  denominations  of  Christians  are  now  awaking  to  this  great  truth, 
which  the  Catholic  Church  has  never  ceased  to  maintain.  Reason  and  ex- 
perience are  forcing  them  to  recognize  that  the  only  practical  way  to  secure 
a  Christian  people,  is  to  give  the  youth  a  Christian  education.  The 
avowed  enemies  of  Christianity  in  some  European  countries  are  banishing 
religion  from  the  schools,  in  order  gradually  to  eliminate  it  from  among. 


THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL.  17 

the  people.  In  this  they  are  logical,  and  we  may  well  profit  by  the  lesson. 
Hence  the  cry  for  Christian  education  is  going  up  from  all  religious  bodies 
throughout  the  land.  And  this  is  no  narrowness  and  "sectarianism"  on 
their  part;  it  is  an  honest  and  logical  endeavor  to  preserve  Christian  truth 
and  morality  among  the  people  by  fostering  religion  in  the  young.  Nor  is  it 
any  antagonism  to  the  State;  on  the  contrary,  it  is  an  honest  endeavor  to- 
give  to  the  State  better  citizens,  by  making  them  better  Christians.  The 
friends  of  Christian  education  do  not  condemn  the  State  for  not  imparting 
religious  instruction  in  the  public  schools  as  they  are  now  organized; 
because  they  well  know  it  does  not  lie  within  the  province  of  the  State  to 
teach  religion.  They  simply  follow  their  conscience  by  sending  their 
children  to  denominational  schools,  where  religion  can  have  its  rightful 
place  and  influence. 

Two  objects  therefore,  dear  brethren,  we  have  in  view,  to  multiply  our 
schools,  and  to  perfect  them.  We  must  multiply  them,  till  every  Catholic 
child  in  the  land  shall  have  within  its  reach  the  means  of  education. 
There  is  still  much  to  do  ere  this  be  attained.  There  are  still  thousands  of 
Catholic  children  in  the  United  States  deprived  of  the  benefit  of  a  Catholic 
school.  Pastors  and  parents  should  not  rest  till  this  defect  be  remedied. 
No  parish  is  complete  till  it  has  schools  adequate  to  the  needs  of  its  chil- 
dren, and  the  pastor  and  people  of  such  a  parish  sliould  feel  that  they  have 
not  accomplished  their  entire  duty  until  the  want  is  supplied. 

But  then,  we  must  also  perfect  our  schools.  We  repudiate  the  idea 
that  the  Catholic  school  need  be  in  any  respect  inferior  to  any  other 
school  whatsoever.  And  if  hitherto,  in  some  places,  our  people  have 
acted  on  the  principle  that  it  is  better  to  have  an  imperfect  Catholic 
school  than  to  have  none,  let  them  now  push  their  praiseworthy  ambition 
still  further,  and  not  relax  their  efforts  till  their  schools  be  elevated  to  the 
highest  educational  excellence.  And  we  implore  parents  not  to  hasten  to 
take  their  children  from  school,  but  to  give  them  all  the  time  and  all  the 
advantages  that  they  have  the  capacity  to  profit  by,  so  that,  in  after  life, 
their  children  may  "rise  up  and  call  them  blessed." 

THE   CHRISTIAN    UOME. 

We  need  hardly  remind  you,  beloved  brethren,  that  while  home 
life  would  not,  as  a  rule,  be  sufficient  to  supply  the  absence  of  good 
or  counteract  the  evil  of  dangerous  influences  in  the  school,  it 
is  equally  true,  that  all  that  the  Christian  school  could  accomplish  would 
be  inadequate  without  the  co-operation  of  the  Christian  home.  Christian 
schools  sow  the  seed,  but  Christian  homes  must  first  prepare  the  soil,  and 
afterwards  foster  the  seed  and  bring  it  to  maturity. 


18  PASTORAL   LETTER  OF 

1.  Christian  Marriage. — The  basis  of  the  Christian  home  is  Christian 
marriage;  that  is,  marriage  entered  into  according  to  religion,  and  cemented 
by  God's  blessing.  So  great  is  the  importance  of  marriage  to  the 
temporal  and  eternal  welfare  of  mankind,  that,  as  it  had  God  for  its  Founder 
in  the  Old  Law,  so,  in  tiie  New  Law,  it  was  raised  by  Our  Divine  Lord  to 
the  dignity  of  a  sacrament  of  the  Christian  religion.  Natural  likings 
and  instincts  have  their  own  value  and  weight;  but  they  ought  not 
by  themselves  be  a  decisive  motive  in  so  important  a  stpp  as  Christian 
marriage ;  nor  are  they  a  safe  guarantee  for  the  proper  fulfillment  of  the  high 
ends  for  which  marriage  was  ordained.  That  Christian  hearts  and  lives 
may  be  wisely  and  rightly  joined,  God  must  join  them,  and  religion 
sanctify  the  union;  and  though  the  Church  sometimes  permits  the  con- 
traction of  mixed  marriages,  she  never  does  so  without  regret  and  without 
a  feeling  of  anxiety  for  the  future  happiness  of  that  union  and  for  the 
eternal  salvation  of  its  offspring. 

2.  The  Indissoluhility  of  Marriage. — The  security  of  the  Christian 
home  is  in  the  indissolubility  of  the  marriage  tie.  Christian  marriage, 
once  consummated,  can  never  be  dissolved  save  by  death.  Let  it  be  well 
understood  that  even  adultery,  though  it  may  justify  '^separation  from 
bed  and  board,"  cannot  loose  the  marriage  tie,  so  that  either  of  the  parties 
may  marry  again  during  the  life  of  the  other.  Nor  has  "legal  divorce" 
the  slightest  power,  before  God,  to  loose  the  bond  of  marriage  and  to  make  a 
subsequent  marriage  valid.  "Whom  God  hath  joined  together,  let  not 
man  put  asunder."^  In  common  with  all  Christian  believers  and  friends  of 
civilization,  we  deplore  the  havoc  wrought  by  the  divorce-laws  of  our 
country.  These  laws  are  fast  loosening  the  foundations  of  society.  Let 
Catholics,  at  least  remember  that  such  divorces  are  powerless  in  conscience. 
Let  them  enter  into  marriage  only  through  worthy  and  holy  motives,  and 
with  the  blessings  of  religion,  especially  with  the  blessing  of  the  Nuptial 
Mass.  And  then,  far  from  wishing  for  means  of  escape  from  their  union, 
they  will  rejoice  that  it  cannot  be  divided  but  by  death. 

3.  Home  Virtues. — The  pervading  atmosphere  of  the  Christian  home 
should  be  Christian  charity — the  love  of  God  and  of  the  neighbor.  It 
should  be  the  ambition  and  study  of  Christian  parents  to  make  their 
home  a  sanctuary,  in  which  no  harsh  or  angry,  no  indelicate  or  profane 
word,  should  be  uttered, — in  which  truth,  unselfishness,  self-control, 
should  be  carefully  cultivated,  in  which  the  thought  of  God,  the  desire  to 
please  God,  should  be,  sweetly  and  naturally,  held  before  the  children  as 
their  habitual  motives.  From  the  home  sanctuary,  the  incense  of  prayer 
should  ascend  as  a  most  sweet  morning  and  evening  sacrifice  to  the  Lord. 

>  Matt.,xix,  6. 


THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL.  19 

How  beautiful  and  rich  in  blessings  is  the  assembling  of  parents  and  chil- 
dren for  morning  and  evening  prayer !  Our  hearts  are  filled  with  consola- 
tion when,  in  the  course  of  our  pastoral  visits,  we  meet  families  in  which 
this  holy  practice  is  faithfully  observed.  In  such  families,  we  are  sure  to 
find  proofs  of  the  special  benedictions  of  heaven.  Faith,  religion  and  vir- 
tue are  there  fostered  to  luxuriant  growth,  and  final  perseverance  almost 
assured.  We  earnestly  exhort  all  parents  to  this  salutary  custom.  And 
if  it  be  not  always  feasible  in  the  morning,  at  least  every  evening,  at  a 
fixed  hour,  let  the  entire  family  be  assembled  for  night  prayers,  followed 
by  a  short  reading  from  the  Holy  Scriptures,  the  Following  of  Christ, 
or  some  other  pious  book. 

4.  Good  Reading. — Let  the  adornments  of  home  be  chaste  and  holy 
pictures,  and,  still  more,  sound,  interesting,  and  profitable  books.  No 
indelicate  representation  should  ever  be  tolerated  in  a  Christian  home. 
Artistic  merit  in  the  work  is  no  excuse  for  the  danger  thus  presented. 
No  child  ought  to  be  subjected  to  temptation  by  its  own  parents  and  in  its 
own  home.  But  let  the  walls  be  beautified  with  what  will  keep  the 
inmates  in  mind  of  our  Divine  Lord,  and  of  his  saints,  and  with  such 
other  pictures  of  the  great  and  the  good  as  will  be  incentives  to  civic  and 
religious  virtue. 

The  same  remark  .applies  equally  to  books  and  periodicals.  Not 
only  should  the  immoral,  the  vulgar,  the  sensational  novel,  the  inde- 
cently illustrated  newspaper,  and  publications  tending  to  weakeu  faith 
in  the  religion  and  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ,  be  absolutely  ex- 
cluded from  every  Christian  home,  but  the  dangerously  exciting  and 
morbidly  emotional,  whatever,  in  a  word,  is  calculated  to  impair  or  lower 
the  tone  of  faith  or  morals  in  the  youthful  mind  and  heart,  should  be 
carefully  banished.  Parents  would  be  sure  to  warn  and  withhold  their 
children  from  anything  that  would  poison  or  sicken  their  bodies  ;  let 
them  be  at  least  as  watchful  against  intellectual  and  moral  poison. 
But  let  the  family  book-shelves  be  well  supplied  with  what  is  both 
pleasant  and  wholesome.  Happily,  the  store  of  Catholic  literature,  as  well 
as  works  which,  though  not  written  by  Catholics  nor  treating  of  religion, 
are  pure,  instructive  and  elevating,  is  now  so  large  that  there  can  be  no 
excuse  for  running  risk  or  wasting  one's  time  with  what  is  inferior, 
tainted,  or  suspicious.  Remember,  Christian  parents,  that  the  develop- 
ment of  the  youthful  character  is  intimately  connected  with  the  de- 
velopment of  the  taste  for  reading.  To  books  as  well  as  to  associations 
may  be  applied  the  wise  saying  :  "  Show  me  your  company  and  I  will  tell 
you  what  you  are."     See,  then,  that  none  but  good  books  and  newspapers, 


20  PASTORAL   LETTER   OF 

as  well  as  none  but  good  companions,  be  admitted  to  your  homes.     Train 
your   children    to   a    love    of    history    and   biography.      Inspire    them 
with  the  ambition  to  become  so  well  acquainted  with  the  history  and  doc- 
trines of  the  Church  as  to  be  able  to  give  an  intelligent  answer  to  any 
honest  inquiry.     Should  their  surroundings  call  for  it,  encourage  them,  as 
they  grow  older,  to  acquire  such  knowledge  of  popularly  mooted  questions 
of  a  scientific  or  philosophical  character  as  will  suffice  to  make  them  firm 
in    their  faith  and  proof  against  sophistry.      We  should    be  glad  to  see 
thoroughly  solid  and  popular  works  on  these  important  subjects,  from  able 
Catholic  writers,  become  more  numerous.     Teach  your  children  to  take  a 
special  interest  in  the  history  of  our  own  country.     We  consider  the  estab- 
lishment of  our  country's  independence,  the  shaping  of  its  liberties  and  laws 
as  a  work  of  special  Providence,  its  framers  "  building  wiser  than  they 
knew,"  the  Almighty's  hand  guiding  them.     And  if  ever   the  glorious 
fabric  is  subverted  or   impaired    it    will    be   by    men   forgetful    of    the 
sacrifices  of  the  heroes  that  reared  it,  the  virtues  that  cemented  it,  and  the 
principles  on  which  it  rests,  or  ready  to  sacrifice   principle  and  virtue  to 
the  interests  of  self  or  party.     As  we  desire  therefore  that  the  history  of 
the  United  States  should  be  carefully  taught  in  all  our  Catholic  schools, 
and  have  directed  that  it  be  specially  dwelt  upon  in  the  education  of  the 
young  ecclesiastical  students  in  our  preparatory   seminaries ;    so  also  we 
desire  that  it  form  a  fiivorite  part  of  the  home  library  and  home  reading. 
We  must  keep  firm  and  solid  the  liberties  of  our  country  by  keeping 
fresh  the  noble  memories  of  the  past,  and  thus  sending  forth  from  our 
Catholic  liomes  into  the  arena  of  public  life  not  partisans  but  patriots. 

5.  The  Holy  Scriptures. — But  it  can  hardly  be  necessary  for  us  to  re- 
mind you,  beloved  brethren,  that  the  most  highly  valued  treasure  of  every 
family  library,  and  the  most  frequently  and  lovingly  made  use  of,  should  be 
the  Holy  Scriptures.  Doubtless  you  have  often  read  A'Kempis's  burning 
thanksgiving  to  our  Lord  for  having  bestowed  on  us  not  only  the  ador- 
able treasure  of  His  Body  in  the  Holy  Eucharist,  but  also  that  of  the  Holy 
Scriptures,  "  the  Holy  Books,  for  the  comfort  and  direction  of  our 
life."^  And  you  have  before  your  eyes,  prefixed  to  the  Douay  version  of 
the  Holy  Bible,  the  exhortation  of  Pope  Pius  the  Sixth  in  his  letter  to 
the  Archbishop  of  Florence,  that  "  the  faithful  should  be  moved  to  the 
reading  of  the  Holy  Scriptures;  for  these,"  he  says,  "are  most  abundant 
sources  which  ought  to  be  left  open  to  every  one  to  draw  from  them  purity 
of  morals  and  of  doctrine,  to  eradicate  the  errors  which  are  so  widely  dis- 
seminated in  these  corrupt  times."  And  St.  Paul  declares  that  "  what 
things  soever  were  written,  were  written  for  our  learning;  that  through 

>  Fol.  of  Christ,  B.  4,  c.  il. 


THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL.  21 

patience  and  the  comfort  of  the  Scriptures  we  might  have  hope."*  We 
hope  that  no  family  can  be  found  amongst  us  without  a  correct  version  of 
the  Holy  Scriptures.  Among  other  versions,  we  recommend  the  Douay, 
which  is  venerable  as  used  by  our  forefathers  for  three  centuries,  which 
comes  down  to  us  sanctioned  by  innumerable  authorizations,  and  which  was 
suitably  annotated  by  the  learned  Bishop  Challoner,  by  Canon  Haydock, 
and  especially  by  the  late  Archbishop  Kenrick. 

But  in  your  reading  remember  the  admonition  of  A'Kempis  :  "  The 
Holy  Scriptures  must  be  read  in  the  same  spirit  in  which  they  were 
written;  if  thou  wilt  derive  profit,  read  with  humility,  simplicity  and 
faith." 2  And  keep  ever  before  your  mind  the  principle  laid  down  by  St. 
Peter  in  the  first  chapter  of  his  second  Epistle  :  "  Understanding  this  first, 
that  no  prophecy  of  Scripture  is  made  by  private  interpretation,  for 
prophecy  came  not  by  the  will  of  man  at  any  time,  but  the  holy  men  of 
God  spoke,  inspired  by  the  Holy  Ghost."  And  this  other  given  by  St. 
John,  in  the  fourth  chapter  of  his  first  Epistle,  in  the  name  of  the  Apos- 
tolic teaching  Church  :  "  Dearly  beloved,  believe  not  every  spirit,  but  try 
the  spirits  if  they  be  of  God.  We  are  of  God ;  he  that  knoweth  God 
heareth  us ;  he  that  is  not  of  God  heareth  us  not ;  by  this  we  know  the 
spirit  of  truth  and  the  spirit  of  error."  In  these  two  divinely  inspired 
rules  you  have  aways  a  sure  safe-guard  against  the  danger  of  error. 

6.  The  CatholiG  Press. — Finally,  Christian  parents,  let  us  beg  your 
earnest  consideration  of  this  important  truth,  that  upon  you,  singly  and 
individually,  must  practically  depend  the  solution  of  the  question, 
whether  or  not  the  Catholic  press  is  to  accomplish  the  great  work  which 
Providence  and  the  Church  expect  of  it  at  this  time.  So  frequently  and 
so  forcibly  has  the  providential  mission  of  the  press  been  dwelt  upon  by 
Popes  and  prelates  and  distinguished  Catholic  writers,  and  so  assiduously 
have  their  utterances  been  quoted  and  reqaoted  everywhere,  that  no  one 
certainly  stands  in  need  of  arguments  to  be  convinced  of  this  truth.  But 
all  this  will  be  only  words  in  the  air,  unless  it  can  be  brought  home  to 
each  parent  and  made  practical  in  each  household.  If  the  head  of  each 
Catholic  family  will  recognize  it  as  his  privilege  and  his  duty  to  contribute 
towards  supporting  the  Catholic  press,  by  subscribing  for  one  or  more 
Catholic  periodicals,  and  keeping  himself  well  acquainted  with  the  infor- 
mation they  impart,  then  the  Catholic  press  will  be  sure  to  attain  to  its 
rightful  development  and  to  accomplish  its  destiued  mission.  !But  choose 
a  journal  that  is  thoroughly  Catholic,  instructive  and  edifying ;  not  one 
that  would  be,  while  Catholic  in  name  or  pretence,  uncatholic  in  tone 

'  Rom.  XV,  »  B.  1,  c.  V. 


22  PASTORAL  LETTER  OF 

and  spirit,  disrespectful  to  constituted  authority,  or  biting  and  uncharitable 
to  Catholic  brethren. 

Beloved  brethren,  a  great  social  revolution  is  sweeping  over  the  world. 
Its  purpose,  hidden  or  avowed,  is  to  dethrone  Christ  and  religion.  Tlic 
ripples  of  the  movement  have  been  observed  in  our  country;  God  grant 
that  its  tidal  wave  may  not  break  over  us.  Upon  you,  Christian  parents,  it 
mainly -depends  whether  it  shall  or  not ;  for,  such  as  our  homes  are,  such 
shall  our  people  be.  We  beseech  you,  therefore,  to  ponder  carefully  all 
that  we  have  said  concerning  the  various  constituents  of  a  true  Christian 
home,  and,  to  the  utmost  of  your  ability,  to  carry  them  into  effect. 
And  we  entreat  all  pastors  of  souls  to  bear  unceasingly  in  mind,  that  upon 
the  Christian  school  and  the  Christian  homes  in  their  parishes  must  mainly 
depend  the  fruit  of  their  priestly  labors.  Let  them  concentrate  their  efforts 
on  these  two  points, — to  make  the  schools  and  the  homes  what  they 
ought  to  be; — then  indeed  will  they  carry  to  the  Lord  of  the  harvest  full 
and  ripe  sheaves,  and  the  future  generation  will  bless  them  for  transmitting 
unimpaired  the  priceless  gifts  of  faith  and  religion. 

THE    LORD'S    DAY. 

There  are  many  sad  facts  in  the  experience  of  nations,  which  we  may 
well  store  up  as  lessons  of  practical  wisdom.  Not  the  least  important  of 
these  is  the  fact  that  one  of  the  surest  marks  and  measures  of  the  decay  of 
religion  in  a  j)eople,  is  their  non-observance  of  the  Lord's  Day.  In  travel- 
ing through  some  European  countries,  a  Christian's  heart  is  pained  by 
the  almost  unabated  rush  of  toil  and  traffic  on  Sunday.  First,  grasping 
avarice  thought  it  could  not  afford  to  spare  the  day  to  God ;  then  unwise 
governments,  yielding  to  the  pressure  of  mammon,  relaxed  the  laws  which 
for  many  centuries  had  guarded  the  day's  sacredness, — forgetting  that  there 
are  certain  fundamental  principles,  which  ought  not  to  be  sacrificed  to  popu- 
lar caprice  or  greed.  And  when,  as  usually  happens,  neglect  of  religion  had 
passed,  by  lapse  of  time,  into  hostility  to  religion,  this  growing  neglect  of 
the  Lord's  Day  was  easily  made  use  of  as  a  means  to  bring  religion  itself 
into  contempt.  The  Church  mourned,  protested,  struggled,  but  was 
almost  powerless  to  resist  the  combined  forces  of  popular  avarice  and 
Caesar's  influence,  arrayed  on  the  side  of  irreligion.  The  result  is  the 
lamentable  desecration  which  all  Christians  must  deplore. 

And  the  consequences  of  this  desecration  are  as  manifest  as  the  desecra- 
tion itself.  The  Lord's  Day  is  the  poor  man's  day  of  rest;  it  has  been 
taken  from  him, — and  the  laboring  classes  are  a  seething  volcano  of  social 
discontent.     The  Lord's  Day  is  the  home  day,  drawing  closer  the  sweet 


THE  THIRD   PLENARY  COUNCIL.  23 

domestic  ties,  by  giving  the  toiler  a  day  with  wife  and  children ;  but 
it  has  been  turned  into  a  day  of  labor, — and  home  ties  are  fast  losing 
their  sweetness  and  their  hold.  The  Lord's  Day  is  the  church-day, 
strengthening  and  consecrating  the  bond  of  brotherhood  among  all  men, 
by  their  kneeling  together  around  the  altars  of  the  one  Father  in  heaven; 
but  men  are  drawn  away  from  this  blessed  communion  of  Saints, — and 
as  a  natural  consequence  they  are  lured  into  the  counterfeit  communion 
of  Socialism,  and  other  wild  and  destructive  systems.  The  Lord's 
Day  is  God's  Day,  rendering  ever  nearer  and  more  intimate  the  union 
between  the  creature  and  his  Creator,  and  thus  ennobling  human  life  in  all 
its  relations ;  and  where  this  bond  is  weakened,  an  effort  is  made  to 
cut  man  loose  from  God  entirely,  and  to  leave  him,  according  to  the 
expression  of  St.  Paul,  "without  God  in  this  world."^  The  profanation 
of  the  Lord's  Day,  whatever  be  its  pretext,  is  a  defrauding  both  of  God 
and  His  creatures,  and  retribution  is  not  slow. 

In  this  country,  there  are  tendencies  and  influences  at  w'ork  to  bring 
about  a  similar  result ;  and  it  behooves  all  who  love  God  and  care  for  soci- 
ety, to  see  that  they  be  checked.  As  usual,  greed  for  gain  lies  at  the  bottom 
of  the  movement.  Even  when  the  pretence  put  forward  is  popular  conve- 
nience or  popular  amusement,  the  clamor  for  larger  liberty  does  not  come 
so  much  from  those  who  desire  the  convenience  or  the  amusement,  as 
from  those  who  hope  to  enrich  themselves  by  supplying  it.  Now  far  be 
it  from  us  to  advocate  such  Sunday-laws  as  would  hinder  necessary 
work,  or  prohibit  such  popular  enjoyments  as  are  consistent  with  the 
sacredness  of  the  day.  It  is  well  known,  however,  that  the  tendency  is  to 
rush  far  beyond  the  bounds  of  necessity  and  propriety,  and  to  allege  these 
reasons  only  as  an  excuse  for  virtually  ignoring  the  sacredness  of  the  day 
altogether.  But  no  community  can  afford  to  have  either  gain  or  amuse- 
ment at  such  a  cost.  To  turn  the  Lord's  Day  into  a  day  of  toil,  is  a  blight- 
ing curse  to  a  country;  to  turn  it  into  a  day  of  dissipation  would  be 
worse.  We  earnestly  appeal,  therefore,  to  all  Catholics  without  dis- 
tinction, not  only  to  take  no  part  in  any  movement  tending  toward  a 
relaxation  of  the  observance  of  Sunday,  but  to  use  their  influence  and 
power  as  citizens  to  resist  in  the  opposite  direction. 

There  is  one  way  of  profaning  the  Lord's  Day  which  is  so  prolific  of 
evil  results,  that  we  consider  it  our  duty  to  utter  against  it  a  special  con- 
demnation. This  is  the  practice  of  selling  beer  or  other  liquors  on  Sun- 
day, or  of  frequenting  places  where  they  are  sold.  This  practice  tends 
more  than  any  other  to  turn  the  Day  of  the  Lord  into  a  day  of  dissipa- 
tion, to  use  it  as  an  occasion  for  breeding  intemperance.     While  we  hope 

Ephes.,  ii,  12, 


24  PASTORAL  LETTER  OF 

that  Sunday-laws  on  this  point  will  not  be  relaxed,  but  even  more  rigidly- 
enforced,  we  implore  all  Catholics,  for  the  love  of  God  and  of  country, 
never  to  take  part  in  such  Sunday  traffic,  nor  to  patronize  or  countenance 
it.  And  we  not  only  direct  the  attention  of  all  pastors  to  the  repression 
of  this  abuse,  but  we  also  call  upon  them  to  induce  all  of  their  flocks  that 
may  be  engaged  in  the  sale  of  liquors  to  abandon  as  soon  as  they  can  the 
dangerous  traffic,  and  to  embrace  a  more  becoming  way  of  making  a  living. 

And  here  it  behooves  us  to  remind  our  workingmen,  the  bone  and 
sinew  of  the  people  and  the  specially  beloved  children  of  the  Church,  that 
if  they  wish  to  observe  Sunday  as  they  ought,  they  must  keep  away  from 
drinking  places  on  Saturday  night.  Carry  your  wages  home  to  your 
families,  where  they  rightfully  belong.  Turn  a  deaf  ear,  therefore, 
to  every  temptation ;  and  then  Sunday  will  be  a  bright  day  for 
all  the  family.  How  much  better  this  than  to  make  it  a  day  of 
sin  for  yourselves,  and  of  gloom  and  wretchedness  for  your  homes, 
by  a  Saturday  night's  folly  or  debauch.  No  wonder  that  the  Prelates  of 
the  Secon<l  Plenary  Council  declared  that  "  the  most  shocking  scandals 
which  we  have  to  deplore  spring  from  intemperance."  No  wonder  that 
they  gave  a  special  approval  to  the  zeal  of  those  who,  the  better  to  avoid 
excess,  or  in  order  to  give  bright  example,  pledge  themselves  to  total  absti- 
nence. Like  them  we  invoke  a  blessing  on  the  cause  of  temperance,  and 
on  all  who  are  laboring  for  its  advancement  in  a  true  Christian  spirit. 
Let  the  exertions  of  our  Catholic  Temperance  Societies  meet  with  the 
hearty  co-operation  of  pastors  and  people;  and  not  only  will  they  go  far 
towards  strangling  the  monstrous  evil  of  intemperance,  but  they  will  also 
put  a  pov/erful  check  on  the  desecration  of  the  Lord's  Day,  and  on  the  evil 
influences  now  striving  for  its  total  profanation. 

Let  all  our  people  "  remember  to  keep  holy  the  Lord's  Day."  Let  them 
make  it  not  only  a  day  of  rest,  but  also  a  day  of  prayer.  Let  them  sanc- 
tify it  by  assisting  at  the  adorable  Sacrifice  of  the  Mass.  Besides  the 
privilege  of  the  morning  Mass,  let  them  also  give  their  souls  the  sweet 
enjoyment  of  the  Vesper  service  and  the  Benediction  of  the  Blessed  Sacra- 
ment. See  that  the  children  not  only  hear  Mass,  but  also  attend  the  Sun- 
day-school. It  will  help  them  to  grow  up  more  practical  Catholics. 
In  country  places,  and  especially  in  those  which  the  priest  cannot  visit 
every  Sunday,  the  Sunday-school  ought  to  be  the  favorite  place  of  reunion 
for  young  and  old.  It  will  keep  them  from  going  astray,  and  will 
strengthen  them  in  the  faith.  How  many  children  have  been  lost  to  the 
Church  in  country  districts,  because  parents  neglected  to  see  that  they 
observed  the  Sunday  properly  at  home  and  at  Sunday-school,  and  allowed 
them  to  fall  under  dangerous  influences  ! 


THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL.  25 


FORBIDDEN    SOCIETIES. 


One  of  the  most  striking  characteristics  of  our  times  is  the  universal 
tendency  to  band  together  in  societies  for  the  promotion  of  all  sorts  of 
purposes.  This  tendency  is  the  natural  outgrowth  of  an  age  of  popular 
rights  and  representative  institutions.  It  is  also  in  accordance  with  the 
spirit  of  the  Church,  whose  aim,  as  indicated  by  lier  name  Catholic,  is  to 
unite  all  mankind  in  brotherhood.  It  is  consonant  also  with  the  spirit 
of  Christ,  who  came  to  break  down  all  walls  of  division,  and  to  gather  all 
in  the  one  family  of  the  one  heavenly  Father. 

But  there  are  fevf  good  things  which  have  not  their  counterfeits,  and 
few  tendencies  which  have  not  their  dangers.  It  is  obvious  to  any  reflect- 
ing mind  that  men  form  bad  and  rash  as  well  as  good  and  wise  designs; 
and  that  they  may  band  together  for  carrying  out  evil  or  dangerous  as 
well  as  laudable  and  useful  purposes.  And  this  does  not  necessarily 
imply  deliberate  malice,  because,  while  it  is  unquestionably  true  that 
there  are  powers  at  work  in  the  world  which  deliberately  antagonize  the 
cause  of  Christian  truth  and  virtue,  still  the  evil  or  the  danger  of  purposes 
and  associations  need  not  always  spring  from  so  bad  a  root.  Honest  but 
weak  and  erring  human  nature  is  apt  to  be  so  taken  up  with  one  side 
of  a  question  as  to  do  injustice  to  the  other;  to  be  so  enamored  of 
favorite  principles  as  to  carry  them  to  unjustifiable  extremes;  to  be  so 
intent  upon  securing.some  laudable  end  as  to  ignore  the  rules  of  prudence, 
and  bring  about  ruin  instead  of  restoration.  But  no  intention,  no  matter 
how  honest,  can  make  lawful  what  is  unlawful.  For  it  is  a  fundamental 
rule  of  Christian  morals  that  "  evil  must  not  be  done  that  good  may  come 
of  it,"  and  "the  end  can  never  justify  the  means,"  if  the  means  are  evil. 
Hence  it  is  the  evident  duty  of  every  reasonable  man,  before  allowing 
himself  to  be  drawn  into  any  society,  to  make  sure  that  both  its  ends  and 
its  means  are  consistent  with  truth,  justice  and  conscience. 

In  making  such  a  decision,  every  Catholic  ought  to  be  convinced  that  his 
surest  guide  is  the  Church  of  Christ.  She  has  in  her  custody  the  sacred 
deposit  of  Christian  truth  and  morals ;  she  has  the  experience  of  all  ages 
and  all  nations ;  she  has  at  heart  the  true  welfare  of  mankind  ;  she  has  the 
perpetual  guidance  of  the  Holy  Ghost  in  her  authoritative  decisions.  In 
her  teaching  and  her  warnings  therefore,  we  are  sure  to  hear  the  voice  of 
wisdom,  prudence,  justice  and  charity.  From  the  hill-top  of  her  Di- 
vine mission  and  her  world-wide  experience,  she  sees  events  and  their 
consequences  far  more  clearly  than  they  who  are  down  in  the  tangled 
plain  of  daily  life.  She  has  seen  associations  that  were  once  praise- 
worthy, become    pernicious  by  change  of  circumstances.     She   has   seen 


26  PASTORAL  LETTER   OF 

others,  which  won  the  admiration  of  the  world  by  their  early  achieve- 
ments, corrupted  by  power  or  passion  or  evil  guidance,  and  she 
has  been  forced  to  condemn  them.  She  lias  beheld  associations  which 
had  their  origin  in  the  .spirit  of  the  Ages  of  Faith,  transformed  by 
lajDse  of  time,  and  loss  of  faith,  and  the  manipulation  of  designing 
leaders,  into  the  open  or  hidden  enemies  of  religion  and  human 
weal.  Thus  our  Holy  Father  Leo  XIII  has  lately  shown  that  the 
Masonic  and  kindred  societies, — although  the  offspring  of  the  ancient 
Guilds,  which  aimed  at  sanctifying  trades  and  tradesmen  with  the 
blessings  of  religion ;  and  although  retaining,  perhaps,  in  their 
"ritual,"  much  that  tells  of  the  religiousness  of  their  origin;  and 
although  in  some  countries  still  professing  entire  friendliness  toward 
the  Christian  religion, — have  nevertheless  already  gone  so  far,  in  many 
countries,  as  to  array  themselves  in  avowed  hostility  against  Christianity, 
and  against  the  Catholic  Church  as  its  embodiment;  that  they  virtually 
aim  at  substituting  a  world-wide  fraternity  of  their  own,  for  the  uni- 
versal brotherhood  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  at  disseminating  mere  Katiiralisra 
for  the  supernatural  revealed  religion  bestowed  upon  mankind  by  the 
Saviour  of  the  world.  He  has  shown,  too,  that,  even  in  countries  where  they 
are  as  yet  far  from  acknowledging  such  purposes,  they  nevertheless  have 
in  them  the  germs,  which,  under  favorable  circumstances,  would  inevitably 
blossom  forth  in  similar  results.  The  Church,  consequently,  forbids  her 
children  to  have  any  connection  with  such  societies,  because  they  are  either 
an  open  evil  to  be  shunned  or  a  hidden  danger  to  be  avoided.  She  would 
fail  in  her  duty  if  she  did  not  speak  the  word  of  warning,  and  her  chil- 
dren would  equally  fail  in  theirs,  if  they  did  not  heed  it. 

Whenever,  therefore,  the  Church  has  spoken  authoritatively  with  regard 
to  any  society,  her  decision  ought  to  be  final  for  every  Catholic.  He  ought 
to  know  that  the  Church  has  not  acted  hastily  or  unwisely,  or  mistakenly; 
he  should  be  convinced  that  any  worldly  advantages  which  he  might 
derive  from  his  membership  of  such  society,  would  be  a  poor  substitute  for 
the  membership,  the  sacraments,  and  the  blessings  of  the  Church  of  Christ; 
he  should  have  the  courage  of  his  religions  convictions,  and  stand  firm  to 
faith  and  conscience.  But  if  he  be  inclined  or  asked  to  join  a  society  on 
which  the  Church  has  passed  no  sentence,  then  let  him,  as  a  reasonable 
and  Christian  man,  examine  into  it  carefully,  and  not  join  the  society  until 
he  is  satisfied  as  to  its  lawful  character. 

There  is  one  characteristic  which  is  always  a  strong  presumption  against 
a  society,  and  that  is  secrecy.  Our  Divine  Lord  Himself  has  laid  down  the 
rule :    "  Every  one  that  doth  evil,  hateth  the  light  and  cometh  not  to  the 


THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL.  27 

light,  that  his  works  may  not  be  reproved.  But  he  that  doth  truth  cometh 
to  the  light  that  his  works  may  be  made  manifest,  because  they  are  done  in 
God."i  When,  therefore,  associations  veil  themselves  in  secrecy  and  dark- 
ness, the  presumption  is  against  them,  and  it  rests  with  them  to  prove  that 
there  is  nothing  evil  in  them. 

But  if  any  society's  obligation  be  such  as  to  bind  its  members  to  secrecy, 
even  when  rightly  questioned  by  competent  authority,  then  such  a  society 
puts  itself  outside  the  limits  of  approval ;  and  no  one  can  be  a  member  of 
it  and  at  the  same  time  be  admitted  to  the  sacraments  of  the  Catholic 
Church.  The  same  is  true  of  any  organization  that  binds  its  members 
to  a  promise  of  blind  obedience — to  accept  in  advance  and  to  obey  what- 
soever orders,  lawful  or  unlawful,  that  may  emanate  from  its  chief 
authorities ;  because  such  a  promise  is  contrary  both  to  reason  and  con- 
science. And  if  a  society  works  or  plots,  either  openly  or  in  secret, 
against  the  Church,  or  against  lawful  authorities,  then  to  be  a  member  of 
it  is  to  be  excluded  from  the  membership  of  the  Catholic  Church. 

These  authoritative  rules,  therefore,  ought  to  be  the  guide  of  all  Catholics 
in  their  relations  with  societies.  No  Catholic  can  conscientiously  join,  or 
continue  in,  a  body  in  which  he  knows  that  any  of  these  condemned  features 
exist.  If  he  has  joined  it  in  good  faith  and  the  objectionable  features 
become  known  to  him  afterwards,  or  if  any  of  these  evil  elements  creep 
into  a  society  which  was  originally  good,  it  becomes  his  duty  to  leave  it  at 
once.  And  even  if  he  were  to  suffer  loss  or  run  risk  by  leaving  such  a 
society  or  refusing  to  join  it,  he  should  do  his  duty  and  brave  the  conse- 
quences regardless  of  human  considerations. 

To  these  laws  of  the  Church,  the  justice  of  which  must  be  manifest  to 
all  impartial  minds,  we  deem  it  necessary  to  add  the  following  admonition 
of  the  Second  Plenary  Council:  2  "Care  must  be  taken  lest  workingmen's 
societies,  under  the  pretext  of  mutual  assistance  and  protection,  should 
commit  any  of  the  evils  of  condemned  societies ;  and  lest  the  members  should 
be  induced  by  the  artifices  of  designing  men  to  break  the  laws  of  justice, 
by  withholding  labor  to  which  they  are  rightfully  bound,  or  by  otherwise 
unlawfully  violating  the  rights  of  their  employers." 

But  while  the  Church  is  thus  careful  to  guard  her  children  against 
whatever  is  contrary  to  Christian  duty,  she  is  no  less  careful  that  no  injus- 
tice should  be  done  to  any  association,  however  unintentionally.  While 
therefore  the  Church,  before  prohibiting  any  society,  will  take  every  pre- 
caution to  ascertain  its  true  nature,  we  positively  forbid  any  pastor,  or 
other  ecclesiastic,  to  pass  sentence  on  any  association,  or  to  impose  eccle- 

I  John,  111,  20,  21,  »  No.  519 


28  PASTORAL  LETTER  OF 

siastical  penalties  or  disabilities  on  its  members  without    the   previous 
explicit  authorization  of  the  rightful  authorities. 

CATHOLIC  SOCIETIES. 

It  is  not  enough  for  Catholics  to  shun  bad  or  dangerous  societies,  they 
ought  to  take  part  in  good  and  useful  ones.  If  there  ever  was  a  time  when 
merely  negative  goodness  would  not  suffice,  such  assuredly  is  the  age  in 
which  we  live.  This  is  pre-eminently  an  age  of  action,  and  what  we  need 
to-day  is  active  virtue  and  energetic  piety.  Again  and  again  has  the  voice 
of  the  Vicar  of  Christ  been  heard,  giving  approval  and  encouragement  to 
many  kinds  of  Catholic  associations,  not  only  as  a  safeguard  against  the 
allurements  of  dangerous  societies,  but  also  as  a  powerful  means  of  accom- 
plishing much  of  the  good  that  our  times  stand  in  need  of.  Not  only 
should  the  pastors  of  the  Church  be  hard  at  work  in  building  up  "the 
spiritual  house,"*  "the  tabernacle  of  God  with  men,"^  but  every  hand 
among  the  people  of  God  should  share  in  the  labor. 

In  the  first  place,  we  hope  that  in  every  parish  in  the  land  there  is 
some  sodality  or  confraternity  to  foster  piety  among  the  people.  We 
therefore  heartily  endorse  anew  all  approbations  previously  given  to  our 
many  time-honored  and  cherished  confraternities,  such  as  those  of  the 
Sacred  Heart  of  Jesus,  of  the  Blessed  Sacrament,  and  of  the  Blessed  Virgin. 

Next  come  the  various  associations  for  works  of  Christian  zeal  and 
charity :  the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Faith,  and  the  Holy  Child- 
hood, than  which  there  are  none  more  deserving;  societies  for  the  support 
of  Catholic  education ;  Christian  doctrine  societies  for  the  work  of  Sunday- 
schools;  societies  for  imj)roviug  the  condition  of  the  poor,  among  which 
stands  pre-eminent  the  Society  of  St.  Vincent  de  Paul ;  church-debt  socie- 
ties; societies  for  supplying  poor  churches  with  vestments  and  other  altar 
requirements;  local  sanctuary  societies;  and  other  methods  of  uniting  the 
efforts  of  the  peojile  of  the  parish  for  useful  and  holy  purposes.  It  ought 
to  be  the  comfort  and  the  honest  pride  of  every  Catholic  to  take  an  active 
part  in  these  good  works;  and  if  any  are  hindered  from  contributing  a  por- 
tion of  their  time  and  labor,  they  should  contribute  as  liberally  as  they 
can  out  of  their  pecuniary  resources. 

Then  there  are  associations  for  the  checking  of  immorality,  prominent 
among  which  are  our  Catholic  Temperance  Societies.  These  should  be 
encouraged  and  aided  by  all  who  deplore  the  scandal  given  and  the  spiritual 
ruin  wrought  by  intemperance.  It  is  a  mistake  to  imagine  that  such 
societies  are  made  up  of  the  reformed  victims  of  intemperence.  They  should 
be,  and  we  trust  that  they  everywhere  are  largely  composed  of  zealous 

>  T.  Pet.,  ii,  5.  s  Apoc,  xxi,  3. 


THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL.  29 

^Catholics  who  never  were  tainted  by  that  vice,  but  who  mourn  over  the 
great  evil  and  are  energetically  endeavoring  to  correct  it. 

We  likewise  consider  as  worthy  of  ])articular  encouragement  associations 
for  the  promotion  of  healthful  social  union  among  Catholics, — and  especi- 
ally those,  whose  aim  is  to  guard  our  Catholic  young  men  against  dan- 
gerous influences,  and  to  supply  them  with  the  means  of  innocent  amuse- 
ment and  mental  culture.  It  is  obvious  that  our  young  men  are  exposed 
to  the  greatest  dangers,  and  therefore  need  the  most  abundant  helps. 
Hence,  in  the  spirit  of  our  Holy  Father  Leo  XIII,  wo  desire  to  see 
the  number  of  thoroughly  Catholic  and  well  organized  associations  for 
their  benefit  greatly  increased,  especially  in  our  large  cities;  we  exhort 
pastors  to  consider  the  formation  and  careful  direction  of  feuch  societies  as 
one  of  their  most  important  duties;  and  we  appeal  to  our  young  men  to 
put  to  good  profit,  the  best  years  of  their  lives,  by  banding  together, 
under  the  direction  of  their  pastors,  for  mutual  improvement  and  encour- 
agement in  the  paths  of  faith  and  virtue. 

And  in  order  to  acknowledge  the  great  amount  of  good  that  the  "Cath- 
olic Young  Men's  National  Union"  has  already  accomplished,  to  promote 
the  growth  of  the  Union  and  to  stimulate  its  members  to  greater  efforts  in 
the  future,  we  cordially  bless  their  aims  and  endeavors  and  recommend  the 
Union  to  all  our  Catholic  young  men. 

We  also  esteem  as  a  very  important  element  in  practical  Catholicity, 
the  various  forms  of  Catholic  beneficial  societies  and  kindred  associations 
•of  Catholic  workingmen.  It  ought  to  be,  and  we  trust  is  everywhere 
their  aim  to  encourage  habits  of  industry,  thrift,  and  sobriety;  to  guard 
the  members  against  the  dangerous  attractions  of  condemned  or  suspicious 
organizations  ;  and  to  secure  the  faithful  practice  of  their  religious  duties, 
on  which  their  temporal  as  well  as  their  eternal  welfare  so  largely  depends. 

With  paternal  affection  we  bestow  our  blessing  upon  all  those  various 
forms  of  combined  Catholic  action  for  useful  and  holy  purposes.  We  desire 
to  see  their  number  multiplied  and  their  organization  perfected.  We  beseech 
them  to  remember  tliat  their  success  and  usefulness  must  rest  in  a  great 
measure,  upon  their  fidelity  to  the  spirit  of  the  Church,  and  on  their  guard- 
ing carefully  against  influences  that  might  make  them  disloyal.  The  more 
closely  pastors  aud  people  are  united  in  good  works,  the  more  abundantly 
will  those  associations  be  blessed  and  their  ends  accomplished,  the  more 
perfectly  will  all  Christians  be  united  in  fraternal  charity,  and  the  more 
widely  and  firmly  will  the  Kingdom  of  Christ  on  the  earth  be  established. 


30  PASTORAL  LETTER   OF 

HOME    AND    FOREIGN    MISSIO. 

The  duties  of  a  Christian  begin  with  his  own  household  and  his  own 
parish  ;  but  they  do  not  end  there.  The  charity  and  zeal  in  his  heart  must 
be  like  that  in  the  heart  of  the  Church,  whose  very  name  is  Catholic, — 
like  that  in  the  heart  of  Christ,  who  "  died  for  all  men,  and  gave  Himself 
a  redemption  for  all."^  The  Divine  commission  to  the  Church  stands 
forever:  "Go,  teach  all  nations;  preach  the  Gospel  to  every  creature j"^ 
and  every  one  who  desires  the  salvation  of  souls,  should  yearn  for  its  ful- 
fillment, and  consider  it  a  privilege  to  take  part  in  its  realization.  The 
more  we  appreciate  the  gift  of  faith,  the  more  must  we  long  to  have  it 
imparted  to  others.  The  heart  of  every  true  Catholic  must  glow  as  he 
reads  of  the  heroic  labors  of  our  missionaries  among  heathen  nations  in 
every  part  of  the  world,  and  especially  among  the  Indian  tribes  of  our 
country.  The  missionary  spirit  is  one  of  the  glories  of  the  Church  and 
one  of  the  chief  characteristics  of  Christian  zeal. 

In  nearly  all  European  countries  there  are  Foreign  Mission  Colleges, 
and  also  associations  cf  the  faithful  for  the  support  of  the  missions  by  their 
contributions.  Hitherto  we  have  had  to  strain  every  nerve  in  order  to 
carry  on  the  missions  of  our  own  country,  and  we  were  unable  to  take  any 
important  part  in  aiding  the  missions  abroad.  But  we  must  beware  lest 
our  local  burdens  should  make  our  zeal  narrow  and  uncatholic.  There 
are  hundreds  of  millions  of  souls  in  heathen  lands  to  whom  the  light  of 
the  Gospel  has  not  yet  been  carried,  and  their  condition  appeals  to  the 
charity  of  every  Christian  heart.  Among  our  own  Indian  tribes,  for  whom 
we  have  a  special  responsibility,  there  are  still  many  thousands  in  the  same 
darkness  of  heathenism,  and  the  missions  among  our  thousands  of  Catholic 
Indians  must  equally  look  to  our  cliarity  for  support.  Moreover, 
out  of  the  six  millions  of  our  colored  population  there  is  a  very  large 
multitude,  who  stand  sorely  in  need  of  Christian  instruction  and  missionary 
labor;  and  it  is  evident  that  in  the  poor  dioceses  in  which  they  are  mostly 
found,  it  is  most  difficult  to  bestow  on  them  the  care  they  need,  without  the 
generous  co-operation  of  our  Catholic  people  in  more  prosperous  localities. 
We  have  therefore  urged  the  establishment  of  the  Society  for  the  Propaga- 
tion of  the  Faith  in  every  parish  in  which  it  is  not  yet  erected,  and  also 
ordered  a  collection  to  bo  made  yearly  in  all  the  dioceses,  for  the 
foreign  missions  and  the  missions  among  our  Indians  and  Negroes.  We 
have  done  this  through  a  deep  sense  of  duty,  and  we  trust  that  our  noble- 
hearted  people  will  not  regard  it  as  a  burden  imposed  on  them,  but  as  an 
opportunity  presented  to  them  of  co-operating  in  a  work  which  must  be 
specially  dear  to  the  Heart  of  our  Divine  Saviour. 

1 II.  Cor.,  V.  15 ;  I.  Tim.,  ii,  6.  s  Mat.,  xxviii,  19;   Mark,  xvl,  16. 


THE  THIRD  PLENARY  COUNCIL.  31 

These  are  the  leading  matters,  venerable  and  beloved  brethren,  which 
have  engaged  our  attention  during  this  Council.  The  objects  of  our 
deliberations  have  been  the  same  that  have  occupied  the  energies  of  the 
Church  and  her  pastors  ever  since  the  days  of  the  Apostles, — namely,  the 
extension  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  the  building  up  the  Body  of  Christ,  the 
giving  greater  '^glory  to  God  in  the  highest,  and  peace  on  earth  to  men  of 
good  will,"  by  shedding  abroad  more  abundantly  the  blessings  of  religion, 
and  the  graces  of  redemption.  Our  legislation  is  not  intended  to  impose 
burdens  or  limitations  upon  you,  but,  on  the  contrary,  to  enlarge  and 
secure  to  you  "the  liberty  of  the  children  of  God."  The  path  of  duty 
and  virtue  is  clearly  marked  and  pointed  out,  not  to  restrain  your  free- 
dom, but  that  you  may  journey  safely,  that  you  may  live  wisely  and 
virtuously,  that  you  may  have  happiness  temporal  and  eternal. 

And  now  we  write  you  these  things,  that  you  may  be  partners  in  our 
solicitude,  that  every  heart  may  cry  out  "  Thy  Kingdom  come,"  that  every 
hand  may  be  active  in  establishing  and  extending  it.  Accept  with  willing 
and  loving  minds  these  lessons  which  spring  from  hearts  full  of  love  for 
you,  and  entirely  consecrated  to  your  service.  Give  joy  to  us  and  to  our 
Divine  Lord  by  putting  them  faithfully  in  practice.  And  may  the  bless- 
ing of  Almighty  God,  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  descend 
upon  you  abundantly,  and  abide  with  you  forever. 

Given  at  Baltimore,  in  the  Plenary  Council,  on  the  7th  day  of  Decem- 
ber, in  the  year  of  our  Lord  1884. 

In  his  own  name  and  in  the  name  of  all  the  Fathers, 

•J*  JAMES    GIBBOI^S, 

Archbishop  of  Baltimore  and  Aposto/ic  Delegate. 


THE  CATHEDRAL  ORGAN. 


As  the  new  organ  which  was  placed  in  the  Cathedral  just  before  the  opening^ 
of  the  council  ranks  amongst  tlie  most  remarkable,  if  not  the  largest  in  the  world, 
we  deem  it  of  sufficient  interest  to  herewith  present  a  cut  of  its  exterior,  and  a 
few  words  descriptive  of  its  most  important  features.  It  is  indeed  a  magnificent 
instrument,  and  the  latest  triumph  by  Mr.  ITilborne  L.  Roosevelt,  in  the  art  of 
organ  building. 

The  instrument  is  located  in  the  transept  gallery  at  the  north  side  of  the 
dome,  in  the  same  position  that  the  old  organ  occupied,  though  it  covers  more 
floor  space  and  is  of  greater  height.  The  old  organ  was  built  in  1821  by  Thomas 
Hall,  who  was  then  a  leading  organ  builder  of  New  York  City,  and,  at  the  date 
of  its  construction,  was  one  of  the  largest  and  finest  instruments  in  America,  con- 
taining what  were  then  considered  many  novelties,  and  an  unusually  complete  Pedal 
Organ,  Its  grand  and  rich  old  case,  with  the  addition  of  new  wings  at  each  side, 
has  been  renovated  and  repaired,  and  now  contains  the  new  instrument.  The  organ 
contains  three  Manuals  and  a  Pedal  Organ,  and  includes  in  its  specification  37 
speaking  stops,  7  Couplers,  5  Mechanical  Accessories,  11  "Roosevelt  Adjustable  Com- 
bination Pistons,"  and  5  Pedal  Movements,  making  a  grand  total  of  65  stops  and 
appliances,  the  pipes  numbering  in  all  2,340.  The  complete  control  of  the  in- 
strument by  means  of  its  wonderful  and  perfect  mechanism,  the  great  delicacy 
and  characteristic  quality  of  tone  in  the  different  stops,  the  dignified  power  of 
"full  organ"  without  harshness,  and  the  perfect  blending  of  the  whole  into  an 
agreeable  and  massive  tone,  yet  not  lacking  in  brilliancy,  were  all  demonstrated 
most  satisfactorily  to  the  public  on  October  23d  by  Mr.  Frederic  Archer,  the  well- 
known  organist,  who  gave  a  most  delightful  recital  in  the  evening  of  that  day. 

One  of  the  most  noticable  musical  effects  mechanically  obtained  is  the  crescendo 
and  diminuendo  of  startling  intensity  produced  by  the  Swell  Pedals,  owing  to  the 
fact  that,  in  addition  to  the  amplitude  of  the  Swell  Organ,  the  Choir  Organ  is 
independently  enclosed  in  another  Swell-box,  which  also  contains  the  mutation  work 
and  reeds  of  the  great  organ,  and  which  it  would  be  impossible  to  produce  under 
other  circumstances.  Considering  the  manual  stops,  this  places  24  out  of  the  total 
33  iinder  the  influence  of  the  tv/o  Swell  Pedals,  which  are  conveniently  located 
so  that  they  can    be  operated  independently  or  simultaneously  by  either  foot. 

The  "Roosevelt  Adjustable  Combination  Action"  is  another  novelty  which 
affords  the  organist  the  most  absolute  and  complete  control  of  the  instniment.  By 
tliese  means  he  can  manipulate  liis  stops  in  any  manner  he  may  see  fit  with  the 
aid  of  the  11  Combination  Pistons  and  2  pedals,  which  are  adjustable  in  a  manner 
which  our  space  will  admit  us  to  describe.  The  adjustability  which  enables  the 
organist  to  arrange  liis  corabinatioiis  specially  to  suit  every  jiece  he  plays  has 
never  been  attempted  by  any  other  builder,  and  is  here  most  eminently  successful. 

The  Wind  chests  throughout  the  organ  are  not  such  as  the  other  builders  use. 
but  are  a  form  invented  and  used  exclusively  by  Mr.  Roosevelt.  They  afford  a 
separate  pallet   for   every  pipe,  and    have    many  advantages   over    the    slide    chests 


THE  CATHEDRAL  ORGAN. 

ordinarily  employed,  such  as  not  being  affected  by  changes  in  the  condition  of  the 
atmosphere,  and  producing  even  a  more  perfect  repetition  than  that  of  a  grand 
piano,  while  the  touch   is  most   agreeable,  light   and  elastic. 

The  wind  system  is  also  far  better  than  that  usually  met  with,  the  supply 
being  copious  and  cihsoluidy  steady,  owing  to  the  use  of  "regulators"  and 
"  lungs."  The  Feeders  are  operated  by  a  "  Jacques  Hydraulic  Engine,"  placed 
in  the  cellar  beneath. 

Everything  is  easy  of  access,  and  the  keyboards  and  their  surroundings,  which 
are  indeed  a  work  of  art,  are  so  arranged  as  to  afford  the  most  convenient  con- 
trol to  the  organist.  Wherever  one  looks  in  the  organ,  one  cannot  help  being 
impressed  by  the  perfection  and  superiority  of  the  workmanship  and  materials  in 
every  detail. 


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